Nina, Lady Bracewell-Smith (née Kakkar; born 14 November 1955) is an Indian-born businesswoman who has since March 2013 been based in Monaco. She was a major shareholder and former non-executive director of the Premier League football club

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Background

Born in Bonn, she is the daughter of an Indian diplomat. In 1996 she married Sir Charles Bracewell-Smith, 4th Baronet (of Keighley in the County of Yorkshire) at Westminster Register Office. Her husband is the younger son of the former Arsenal director Sir George Bracewell-Smith, 2nd Baronet , who was on the Arsenal board of directors from May 1953 to September 1976. Sir George was in turn the son of the former Arsenal director Sir Bracewell Smith, 1st Baronet, who was chairman from 1948 to 1962.

Arsenal FC

Lady Bracewell-Smith's share in

comes from the estate of Sir Bracewell Smith, which was split among his grandchildren, Sir Charles Bracewell-Smith,

Clive Carr Clive Carr is a former vice-president of Arsenal Football Club and a former hotelier. He is the grandson of former Arsenal Chairman Sir Bracewell Smith, alongside his brother Richard, through their late mother Eileen. His father Harry Lascelles ...

, Richard Carr and Sarah Carr, now Lady Phipps-Bagge. Sir Charles Bracewell-Smith transferred ownership of his shares to his wife, Lady Bracewell-Smith, and she was made a non-executive director of Arsenal in 2005; her appointment increased the membership of Arsenal's Board of Directors to ten. As of September 2007, Lady Bracewell-Smith owned a 15.9% stake in the club and was the third largest shareholder in the club following

Danny Fiszman Daniel David Fiszman (9 January 1945 – 13 April 2011) was an English diamond dealer, best known as a shareholder in and director of Arsenal Football Club, and played a leading role in the club's move from Highbury to Ashburton Grove, now known a ...

, with 24.11%, and Red and White Holdings, which is co-owned by

Farhad Moshiri Farhad Moshiri ( fa, اردوان فرهاد ﻣﺸﻴﺮى; born 18 May 1955) is a British-Iranian businessman based in Monaco. He is the chairman and a shareholder of USM, a diversified Russian holding company with significant interests acros ...

and Alisher Usmanov, which owns 24.0% of the equity. In April 2007, she joined with the other board members, her husband’s cousins, as well as Danny Fiszman and the chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, in resisting a take-over by Usmanov, which was believed to have the support of former vice-chairman David Dein. On 17 December 2008 Arsenal Holdings PLC made this announcement: "Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith will be leaving the Boards of the Company and the Club with immediate effect." On 11 April 2011, she sold her Arsenal shares amounting to 15.9% of club's stake to Stan Kroenke. On 1 March 2012, she was appointed but removed no
Honorary Vice-President of the Club

Other business interests

Lady Bracewell-Smith was also formerly a director of the Park Lane Sheraton Hotel. The Bracewell-Smith family has strong connections to hotels having previously owned the Ritz Hotel in London, which they sold in 1976, together with a large share of the Paris Ritz; they also held the majority of the shares in the

Park Lane Hotel The Sheraton Grand London Park Lane is a 5 Star hotel on Piccadilly, London. The hotel opened in 1927 as The Park Lane Hotel to designs by architects Adie, Button and Partners, in a grand Art Deco style, and was constructed by the developer ...

(built by Sir Bracewell Smith in 1920) until its £44m sale in 1996. She and her husband were ranked 657th in the

Sunday Times Rich List 2009 The ''Sunday Times Rich List 2009'' was published on 26 April 2009. Since 1989 the UK national Sunday newspaper ''The Sunday Times'' (sister paper to ''The Times'') has published an annual magazine supplement to the newspaper called the ''Sunday ...

with an estimated family fortune of £85m. She is also 44th on ''The Sunday Times'' UK Asian rich list, 72nd on the women list and is in the European Rich List.

References

External links

Sunday Telegraph: The mystery of Lady Nina, Arsenal and her 'insignificant' first marriage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bracewell-Smith, Nina Arsenal F.C. directors and chairmen 1955 births Living people Indian emigrants to England Wives of baronets People from Delhi British expatriates in Monaco