Mohamed Amersi

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Mohamed Amersi
Born (1960-04-20) 20 April 1960 (age 64)
Kenya
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Founder and chairman, Inclusive Ventures
CEO, Emergent Telecom Ventures
PartnerNadezhda "Nadia" Rodicheva
Children1

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.

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[edit]

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[edit]

Legal[edit]

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[edit]

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,[a] 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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

The Amersi Foundation[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

  • 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[edit]

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[edit]

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

References[edit]

  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. ^ a b c d "Pandora Papers: Tory donor Mohamed Amersi involved in telecoms corruption scandal". BBC News. 4 October 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "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. ^ a b c d e "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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b "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. ^ a b c "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. ^ a b c "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.[page needed]
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