Mohamed Amersi

Mohamed Amersi (born 20 April 1960) is a British businessman. He is the founder and chairman of the Inclusive Ventures Group, and former chairman of QML Group. He is a donor to the Conservative Party, having given nearly £525,000 since 2018.

Mohamed Amersi
Born (1960-04-20) 20 April 1960
Kenya
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Founder and chairman, Inclusive Ventures
CEO, Emergent Telecom Ventures
PartnerNadezhda "Nadia" Rodicheva
Children1

He is founder and chairman of the Amersi Foundation, which has made contributions across a range of issues, including multi-faith and youth programmes to the arts and heritage, education, anti-slavery, climate change, technology and poverty reduction. He holds a number of chairmanship and advisory roles in the charity sector.[1] In October 2021, alongside the Pandora Papers leak, Amersi was identified as an advisor on a deal between Telia and Takilant, a company subsequently found to have been owned by Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the President of Uzbekistan, through offshore structures. Telia later settled the matter by entering into a DPA with the US Department of Justice. In the only trial that took place in Sweden to determine guilt, three Telia executives were acquitted at first instance and on appeal.[2] Representatives of Amersi said that he was not a suspect nor a witness in any of the multi enforcement agency investigations and acted in a limited advisory capacity to Telia on the deal.[3]

Early life and education

Amersi was born in Kenya to "a family from an Iranian-Indian background".[4] In 1976 he came to the UK, and studied at Merchant Taylors School.[5] Amersi studied medicine and law at Sheffield and Cambridge universities,[4] and went on to earn an Executive MBA at the Saïd Business School, Oxford in 2016.[6][7]

Amersi is an honorary fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford and an independent governor of the Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester.[8][9] Amersi since then has financed one of the most significant expansions at Brasenose, with the creation of the Amersi Foundation lecture theatre.[10]

Career

Amersi initially practised law as a barrister at 1 Brick Court.[5] He was then a solicitor with Clifford Chance and Jones, Day Reavis & Pogue.[5] Through his legal career, Amersi developed a specialisation in equity related deals, and represented issuers and financial institutions in over 100 transactions.[5]

Telecoms

From 1997 to 2002, Amersi was a senior advisor at Telefónica[11] with whom he co-founded Gramercy Communications Partners in New York, and was its Managing Director.[5][12][13]

From 2008 to 2013 he was also a senior advisor to the TeliaSonera Group, leading their M&A work including the IPO of Kcell and MegaFon.[11] He was also the board member of various Rothschild Banking Group entities, Motorola, MegaFon and Mi-Fone.[11][5]

Amersi, as head of the American investment bank Gramercy Communications Partners,[lower-alpha 1] and Juan Villalonga co-founded Emergent Telecom Ventures in 2002, an Emerging Markets advisory and consulting firm, specialising in Telecoms, Media and Technology.[5][11][15][16][14]

Inclusive Ventures Group

While at Saïd Business School in 2014, Amersi founded Inclusive Ventures Group, a fund that focuses on making investments that have a positive social impact.[17] Through the fund, Amersi has supported RuralShores, a business that oversees outsourcing centres in rural areas of India.[17] Additionally, Inclusive Ventures has worked to improve access and the quality of education in Kenya through United We Reach and Bridge, an education and technology initiative.[18]

QML Group

In 2018, Amersi became chairman of QML Group (now known as Neos International Limited), a Midlands-headquartered engineering supplier, with clients including Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls-Royce, GKN and McLaren. He resigned in 2020.[19][20]

Political activity

Amersi is a Conservative Party donor. He donated £10,000 each to Boris Johnson[4] and Michael Gove during the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election.[21] During the 2019 United Kingdom general election, he made donations of £99,500 and £7,400 to the central party,[22][23] £5,000 to the Central Devon Association and £2,500 to the Rochdale Association.[24][25]

On 4 October 2021, according to the massive leak of financial documents known as the Pandora papers, Amersi advised Swedish telecoms firm Telia on a £162m deal with Gulnara Karimova in 2010 which US authorities later described as a “bribe”.[26]

According to the Conservative MP David Davis, Amersi has used a number of legal measures against his critic, former MP Charlotte Leslie, who had compiled a due diligence note on his background, related to a dispute over the Conservative Middle East Council. Davis, speaking under parliamentary privilege, described Amersi's behaviour as "bullying".[27] Davis also said that Amersi had with legal threats effectively "silenced" a report on his activities by Margaret Hodge MP, chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on anti-corruption and responsible tax.[28] In June 2023, Amersi's defamation claim against Charlotte Leslie was struck out by the High Court, and the judge criticised the way Amersi had conducted the legal proceedings.[29]

Philanthropy

The Amersi Foundation

The Amersi Foundation was founded in 2012 and is one of several philanthropic initiatives Amersi is involved with. The Foundation has worked on issues such as modern-day slavery.[30]

A key project that the Amersi Foundation is involved with is the ‘Extremely Together’ project, coordinated by the Kofi Annan Foundation.[31] The project brought together 10 of the world's leading young counter-extremism experts to provide guidance on how to prevent and counter youth radicalisation.[31] When asked about the work both foundations were conducting, Amersi said that ‘it is more important than ever that young people feel engaged and energised’.[31]

In 2017, the Amersi Foundation contributed to the funding of The Foundry at Oxford University, a centre for entrepreneurs opened by Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.[32] Amersi is listed as being a member of its advisory board.[33]

Other projects

Amersi is also involved in several projects that were launched under the Prince of Wales, including the Prince's Trust International, the Prince's Trust Mosaic network and Dumfries House.[11][34][35] He is a Trustee and a member of the Global Advisory Board of Prince's Trust International, and a Trustee for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is also the chair of the International Advisory Council for the British Asian Trust, another of the Prince of Wales’ charitable initiatives.[36] Additionally, he chairs the Board of Trustees for the Islamic Reporting Initiative, is a trustee of the Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation, the Rose Castle Foundation, which works with faith leaders to improve inter-faith communications and United We Reach.[37][38][39] He is a Counsellor for One Young World.[40][41][42]

Other affiliations
  • Member of the Development Board of the British Academy and a member of the Steering Group and the Corporate Advisory Group of the British Academy's Future of the Corporation Project.[43]
  • Trustee of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.[44]
  • Member of the Global Leadership Council of the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.[45]
  • Member of the Advisory Boards of the Global Thinkers Forum, Toucan and Faith in Leadership.[43]
  • Member of the Global Partners Council of the Institute of New Economic Thinking (INET).[46]
  • Member of the Advisory Board of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council and of Commonwealth First.[43]
  • Member of the Advisory Board of the Education Outcomes Fund.[47]

Personal life

His partner is his Russian-born business partner, Nadezhda Rodicheva. She has herself donated more than £250,000 to the Conservative Party in 2017 and 2018.[4]

Notes
  1. The American investment bank Gramercy Communications Partners was created by Juan Villalonga who also created the Spanish telecommunications firm Telefonica.[14]

References
  1. "Mohamed Amersi". Institute for New Economic Thinking. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  2. Sweden, Radio (4 February 2021). "Appeals court upholds acquittal of former Telia bosses in bribery case". Sveriges Radio (in Swedish). Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  3. "Major Tory donor advised on Uzbekistan deal later found to be $220m bribe". The Guardian. 4 October 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  4. "Pandora Papers: Tory donor Mohamed Amersi involved in telecoms corruption scandal". BBC News. 4 October 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  5. "Mohamed Amersi". Bloomberg. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  6. "Mohamed Amersi". Skoll. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  7. "The Brazen Nose" (PDF). Oxford University. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  8. "Mr Mohamed Amersi". Royal Agricultural University. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  9. "Brasenose Welcomes Two New Honorary Fellows". Brasenose College. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  10. "Extended Teaching Space in the Heart of Brasenose". Brasenose College. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  11. "Mohamed Amersi". Mosaic, The Prince's Trust. Archived from the original on 13 November 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  12. "Mohamed Amersi". Social Impact Careers Conference. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  13. Willis, Andrew. "Onex brings banker back to his roots". Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  14. Королев, Игорь (9 November 2020). Как партнер «Альфа-групп» и «питерских» связистов работал в России за астрономический гонорар (As a partner of Alfa Group and St. Petersburg communications workers, he worked in Russia for an astronomical fee). CNews. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  15. "Mohamed Amersi, CEO, Emergent Telecom Ventures". TMT Finance. Archived from the original on 21 October 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  16. CNews staff (17 June 2005). (Did the Swiss buy RTKomm.ru by order of St. Petersburg? The Swiss fund ETV acquired RTKomm.ru, Globus-Telecom and Telecom-Center - however, it is not known by whose order.). CNews. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  17. "UK's Inclusive Ventures invests 15 cr in rural BPO firm". The Hindu Business Line. 31 July 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  18. "Oxford Conference on Business and Poverty". Progress Daily. Archived from the original on 13 November 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  19. "NEOS INTERNATIONAL LIMITED: Persons with significant control". Companies House. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  20. "Neos Annual Report". The Gazette. The Stationery Office. 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  21. Walker, Peter (17 July 2019). "Boris Johnson has received £500,000 in donations since May". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  22. "View donation". The Electoral Commission. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  23. "View donation". The Electoral Commission. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  24. "View donation". The Electoral Commission. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  25. "View donation". The Electoral Commission. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  26. "Conservatives must 'return donor money', says Labour after Tory backer linked to corruption scandal". Independent. Archived from the original on 15 May 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  27. "Lawfare and UK Court System". Hansard, Parliamentary Record. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  28. Siddique, Haroon (3 July 2023). "Tory donor accused of using bullying legal threats to suppress a report". The Guardian.
  29. Siddique, Haroon (7 June 2023). "Conservative donor has defamation case against Tory MP struck out". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  30. "President urges private sector to 'do its part' in fight against modern slavery". The Independent. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  31. "Extremely Together". The Kofi Annan Foundation. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  32. Horgan, Rob. "Oxford startup hub to be opened by Apple's Tim Cook". PC Retail. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  33. "Foundry Advisory Board". Oxford Foundry. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  34. "Mohamed Amersi". Prince's Trust International. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  35. "Mohamed Amersi". Institute for New Economic Thinking. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  36. "Our Supporters". British Asian Trust. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  37. "Expanding our Board of Trustees". Islamic Reporting Initiative. 4 February 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  38. "The Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation". Charity Commission. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  39. "Rose Castle Foundation". Charity Commission. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  40. "Counsellors". One Young World. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  41. "Mohamed Amersi". One Young World. 21 July 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  42. "La corrupción vista a escala global". ELESPECTADOR.COM (in Spanish). 6 October 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  43. "Mohamed Amersi" (PDF). ineteconomics.org. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  44. "Board of Trustees - FPRI". Foreign Policy Research Institute. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
  45. "Boards and Councils". Said Business School. Archived from the original on 26 February 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  46. "Mohamed Amersi". Institute for New Economic Thinking. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  47. "Our Advisory Board". The Education Outcomes Fund. Archived from the original on 20 April 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  • Hedelius, Patricia (2015). Telia: Aliansregeringen och korruptionen [Telia: Alliance Government and Corruption]. Massolit Förlag. ISBN 9789176610121.
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