IT’S been a special year for Martin and Chansopha Biermann – and for Centerprise International.

It was therefore fitting that in their last business engagement as Mayor and Mayoress of Basingstoke and Deane, Cllr Biermann and his wife paid a visit to the award-winning Basingstoke business that is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

During the two-hour visit to the company, based on Hampshire International Business Park, in Chineham, Cllr Biermann learned how over the past 30 years, Centreprise has come to be acknowledged as one of the largest and most respected IT providers in the UK.

Having met Rafi Razzak at various charity events over the last year, the Cllr Biermann said he was keen to meet the chairman of Centerprise International at work to find out more about the company.

He said: “He’s a very generous donor in the borough and so I wanted to see behind the scenes and where Rafi’s generosity stems from.

“I certainly got to know a lot more about Centerprise International and the scope of this rapidly growing company, as well as getting to know some of Rafi’s impressive senior management team.”

Hailing from Iraq where his father was Prime Minister in 1965, Rafi has lived in the UK since he was 15.

And having studied electronic engineering at Imperial College London, he worked for IBM for nine years and later went on to set up Centerprise International in 1983.

Cllr Biermann described Mr Razzak as “an admirable Basingstoke businessman.”

He added: “It’s great that we have a successful company like Centerprise International in the borough. And Rafi is someone who engages with the local community, and gives a lot back by the spade full – he certainly does a lot of good for Basingstoke and Deane.”

An example of Mr Razzak’s support to the local community took place over the weekend, with Centerprise International sponsoring the Mayor’s Charity Concert, Basingstoke in the Mix.

Money raised at the event will go towards the Mayor’s Charity Appeal, which is supporting Radcan, The Camrose Centre, Basingstoke Consortium, and Age Concern Basingstoke.

Mr Razzak, who attended the concert, said: “It was a great pleasure having Cllr Biermann and his wife Chansopha come and visit us.

“Cllr Biermann showed great interest in what we do – in fact we ran out of time.

“Among the things we discussed was that we’ve recently been involved in five acquisitions – so business is going very well.”