A few Introductions

It helps to build a better relationship if you can put a face to the name, so here's a photo and few words about the core team at Books Asia and Bertram Library Services (BLS).

Mahmudul Haq - Managing Director Started out as Professor of Geography (Dhaka University), then spent 20 years teaching in the inner-city schools of Bradford. His passion for books, knowledge and education provided the vision to launch Books Asia in 1985. He's a strong believer in business ethics, loves the book industry and embraces competition. He's a fan of classic Bengali literature, and is our Bengali specialist.
Naheed Qurban - Servicing Manager Naheed has been with Books Asia for more than 10 years. She ensures orders are processed to schedule, and serviced in accordance to our QA standards. Naheed's quality approach is the reason our fault returns are less than 1 in 20,000. Naheed is also our Urdu Digests specialist and manages our ever-growing list of Standing Orders for the popular magazines.
Fozia Begum - Cataloguing Fozia is our specialist Urdu Cataloguer and has a keen interest in Urdu Fiction and Literature. In addition to this, Fozia is a web developer with a strong background in Dreamweaver and PHP. Fozia grew up in Hong Kong and is fluent in Cantonese (as well as Urdu, Hindi, Hinko and Punjabi). All in all, a great addition to our team.
Nabeela Mughal - Cataloguing Nabeela joined the Books Asia team in 2010, responsible for the Quality Management of our Bibliographic Data. Nabeela holds an MBA and is also completing an MA (IBM) at Leeds University. Nabeela has an in depth knowledge of Urdu literature, and works closely with our suppliers to source the best Urdu stock.
Kaki Lin - Cataloguing Kaki joined the Books Asia team in 2010 as our Chinese Specialist. Initial cataloguing is done in China and Hong Kong - Kaki validates this data before entering the records onto our own system. Originally from Hong Kong, she is expert in both Traditional and Simplified Chinese and works closely with our Suppliers to source the best Chinese stock.
Kelly Kang - Cataloguing Kelly is a graduate from Nankai University and joined us in 2010 to provide additional support for Chinese cataloguing and stock selection. She is expert in both Traditional and Simplified Chinese and is a welcomed addition to our part-time staff.
Agnieszka Lasocha (Aga) - Cataloguing Aga joined Books Asia as our Polish language expert. Initial cataloguing is done in Krakow - Aga validates this data before entering the records onto our own system. Aga works closely with our suppliers in Poland to source the best Polish stock. She is a graduate from the Pedagogic University in Katowice, and a welcome addition to our team.
Jaimie Dorward - Commercial Director (BLS) Jaimie is a Certified Chartered Accountant who joined Bertram Library Services in 2006 as Finance Manager, having worked previously managing finance departments within the manufacturing industry and the import and export of textiles throughout Europe and Asia. Jaimie manages the stock selection & bibliographical services, outsourcing, supply chain, marketing and tendering process whilst still keeping a keen eye on the numbers.
Neil Barker - North Region Sales (BLS) Neil has spent the majority of his career within field sales. The majority of this was for O2 where he sold products and services into their retail partners. With a keen flair for maximising retail opportunities he progressed up the ladder and managed one of the northern sales teams. He moved from here to be an account manager in the finance industry account managing the independent retail dealer base. He joined Bertrams where he is now a Regional Account Manger covering the north bringing retail experience to the library sector.
Simon Brown - South Region Sales (BLS) Simon has spent the last 18 years in senior sales manager positions mainly within the Print and Packaging sector. His experience within both the public and private sector is an important addition to Bertrams. Simon firmly believes that, irrespective of size a customer should respect premium levels of customer service combined with excellent value for money.
Shomi Haq - IT Project Manager HSBC Systems Analyst for 5 years, KPMG Management Consultant for 10 years, William Hill Project Manager for 5 years. And now a freelance Project Manager. Responsible for Books Asia's bespoke IT system, library customisations, our Marc Generator and EDI. With a BSc in Computer Science, he's a techie, but would never admit it.
Ali Mahmood - AV Specialist Ali joined Books Asia in 2011 to manage our ever-increasing standing orders for Bollywood DVD and Audio, and to launch our exciting new range of Anime. Ali's interest in Comics will be utilised to enhance our collection of Graphic Novels (mainly Manga). Ali will also manage the introduction of Indic eBooks from 2012.
Nusrat Hussain - Servicing Nusrat joined Books Asia in 2004 and is our Urdu specialist. She has a keen interest and in-depth knowledge of Urdu Poetry. She holds a BSc in Biology and a BEd in Psychology. Just back from maternity leave, Nusrat is currently with us on a part-time basis.
Raj Kullar - Servicing Raj joined Books Asia in 2008 as our Punjabi specialist. She has a BA in Philosophy. Raj has a keen interest in anything Bollywood and is well suited to being our specialist cataloguer of Indic DVD and Audio resources.
Nikki Rakesh - Indic Supplier / Cataloguer Nikki joined Books Asia in 2008 after completing an MSc in Biomedical Science at Bradford University. She was our Primary Cataloguer for 2 years and, although currently in India, she continues to be our Tamil Specialist. Nikki works closely with our supplier base in India to ensure the most suitable Tamil, Hindi and Gujarati stock is selected on our behalf.

The Language Pool

We also maintain a pool of specialists to cover our spectrum of languages. They are on-call for transliteration, and also to assist with servicing during our busiest periods. We are always looking for avid readers to join our team of language specialists - if you would like to be part of the Books Asia team, please submit your CV to jobs@booksasia.co.uk.