Arshad Chaudhry

It was a philosophy he used to inspire both himself and those around him.

During his 40 years in Leeds he contributed a huge amount to the business community through a number of organisations and was a champion of multi-culturalism.

He was chairman and founder of the Asian Business Development Network, now known as ABDN; a director and senior consultant of the Huque Chaudhry Associates (HCA) group of accountancy practices in Leeds; and director of Business Link Yorkshire.

He also served on the boards of many business and educational organisations over the years and won a number of awards for his work.

Born on April 23, 1951, Mr Chaudhry, the youngest of four sons, had a comfortable upbringing in Lahore, Pakistan. His father was an army colonel and Mr Chaudhry went to boarding school and later studied economics.

After graduating at the age of 20, he moved to England to join his eldest brother, Asghar, in Leeds where he was working as a chartered accountant. However, his initial experience of racism almost made him move back to Pakistan.

He told the Yorkshire Post in June: “The only thing that made me stay here was the fact that I didn’t want to go back without having done anything, having failed.”

Mr Chaudhry qualified as an accountant at Leeds University and worked at a firm in Dewsbury before joining the Burton Group, now Arcadia, as group internal auditor.

He left to set up his own practice and said he never looked back.

But, although accountancy earned him the money to look after himself and his family, he craved the excitement and challenge of being an entrepreneur.

He told this newspaper: “I’m the kind of person who gets bored with things very quickly and accountancy is not the most exciting of professions. That was the bread and butter but then I decided to do things that excited me so I started IT businesses. I set up a call centre, and I went on trade delegations. I wanted to do things that would excite me beyond my profession.”

Along the way, he made some mistakes but insisted it was “part of the fun of being in business”.

His biggest mistake, he said, was investing in an internet company during the dotcom boom in 2001 and losing £1m.

Arguably his biggest success was launching ABDN in 1997 with one simple aim – to help expand small Asian enterprises.

The group, which started off supporting a handful of businesses in West Yorkshire, now provides access to training and support services for 800 ethnic-minority businesses on a local and national scale.

Mr Chaudhry remained ambitious to the end, continuing to help Asian businesses to succeed and fighting the corner for small enterprises.

He said: “The main thing that keeps me going is getting people to believe in themselves that they can beat any odds.”

Beating the odds remained a constant theme for Mr Chaudhry throughout his life. Eleven years ago he was diagnosed with myeloma, a cancer that affects plasma cells in the bone marrow. The doctors told him he had three years to live, yet he became one of the longest surviving patients with the disease.

“I told them, the doctors don’t write my destiny, God does, ” he said.

Last year he had a relapse and doctors gave him three months to live. However, he was determined to keep working and underwent chemotherapy every day for the last few months.

Mr Chaudhry was married to Rukhsana and together they had four children: Saad, Mehak, Saud and Nayab.

However, the family suffered a personal tragedy when Saad, the eldest, died of a brain tumour at the age of seven.

His brother, Asghar, said yesterday: “Arshad or Munna (baby) as he was affectionately known in the family grew up smothered in love but never spoilt. He was the most kind natured affectionate brother.”

He added: “He shied away from controversy always trying to merge conflicting views into a harmonious discourse.

“He would seek out the positive in any difficult situation and battled and won people’s hearts and minds.”

His daughter, Mehak Arshad Chaudhry, added: “For his children, my father was always a best friend and for his wife, the most loving husband. He taught us that ‘focus, faith and determination can get you anywhere you want to be’. I hope to make him proud one day.”