Michael Zilkha

He was born in 1954, the son of Selim Zilkha, the founder of Mothercare, one of the UK's largest retail chains (and the grandson of Khedouri Zilkha, a banker) and Diane Bashi. His parents had divorced by 1962, when his mother married the British politician Harold Lever (later Harold Lever, Baron Lever of Manchester).[1] He was educated at Westminster School and Lincoln College, Oxford.[2][3]

In 1978, he co-founded ZE Records with Michel Esteban, which he co-owned until 1986. From 1986 to 1998, he was co-owner and executive vice president of Zilkha Energy, and from 1998 to 2005 president and co-owner of Zilkha Renewable Energy, until it was bought by Goldman Sachs in July 2005 and renamed Horizon Wind Energy, and co-owner of Zilkha Biomass Energy.[2]

In 1998, Zilkha and his father sold the Houston-based Zilkha Energy to Sonat for $1 billion, which in turn was later acquired by El Paso Corporation, of which the Zilkhas became major shareholders.[4]

In 2019, Zilkha inaugurated Ze Books, described as a new small press that will publish "literary mix-tapes from visionary writers, artists, and musicians".[5] Inaugural authors included Glenn O'Brien, Jonathan Wells and Mary Gaitskill.[6]

In 1983, Zilkha married the singer Cristina Monet-Palaci.[3] They divorced in 1990.

He is married to Cornelia "Nina" O'Leary, a descendant of Hugh Roy Cullen, and they have a son.[7][8]

• Ze Books