Amar Latif

Education

Amar Latif gained a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, Statistics and Finance at the University of Strathclyde, spending part of his course in Canada at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

Career

His blindness is due to the incurable eye condition retinitis pigmentosa. By the age of 20, he had 95% sight loss. In founding this ground-breaking enterprise, he set out to challenge the assumption that visually impaired travellers should ever have to accept restrictions on their world travel aspirations.

A Scotsman now based in Leeds, Latif often personally acts as world tour-guide.

On leaving university, he trained as an accountant, and eventually became Head of Commercial Finance for British Telecom. Amar Latif was a participant in the first series of the British Broadcasting Corporation Two documentary Beyond Boundaries.

Broadcast in October and November 2005, the four-part programme explored the levels of endurance attainable by a group of travellers with various disabilities on a gruelling 220 mile trek from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts of Nicaragua. Amar also directed the Channel 4 documentary Sightseeing Blind, broadcast on 15 April 2007.

His most recent television acting roles have included parts in the British Broadcasting Corporation Three surreal comedy series lieutenant"s Adam and Shelley, and the British Broadcasting Corporation One drama series Love Soup with Tamsin Greig, produced by Verity Lambert, scheduled for screening in early 2008.

He appeared as a special guest on the television cookery show Ready, Steady, Cook. In 2016, Amar appeared as a "tour guide" in The Last Legal Goes Down Under on Channel 4. He has also appeared in theatrical productions in the United Kingdom, including musical revue and serious drama.

He has played music professionally in the United States of America and Canada in a Blues duo, playing guitar and singing.

Latif is well known for his charity work. He is a fund-raising public speaker, as well as taking on other fund-raising activities, one of which involved him abseiling down the side of a major public building dressed as Batman.

Achievements

• In 2007, he was presented with the inaugural Stelios Disabled Entrepreneur Award. This award is presented by EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou in partnership with the charity Leonard Cheshire Disability. Latif"s awards include the 2005 "Outstanding Young Business Entrepreneur of the World" and "Outstanding Young Person of the United Kingdom", both awarded by the Chamber of Commerce International (Joint Commission International), the 2006 One Vision Manitoba of the Year and the University of Strathclyde’s 2006 Alumnus of the Year award.