Nicholas F. Oppenheimer (born 8 June 1945) is a South African

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busi ...

businessman. He was formerly the chairman of

De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and ...

diamond mining company and of its subsidiary, the Diamond Trading Company, and former deputy chairman of Anglo American. He is the third richest man in Africa.

Early life

Oppenheimer is the son of Bridget (née McCall) and

Harry Oppenheimer Harry Frederick Oppenheimer (28 October 1908 – 19 August 2000) was a prominent South African businessman, industrialist and philanthropist. Oppenheimer was often ranked as one of the wealthiest people in the world, and was considered South A ...

, and grandson of Anglo American founder

Ernest Oppenheimer Sir Ernest Oppenheimer (22 May 1880 – 25 November 1957), KStJ was a diamond and gold mining entrepreneur, financier and philanthropist, who controlled De Beers and founded the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa. Career Ernest Oppenhe ...

(the first generation to chair

, from 1929). His father was of German Jewish descent. He was educated at

Ludgrove School Ludgrove School is an English independent boys preparatory boarding school. Ludgrove was founded in 1892 at Ludgrove Hall in Middlesex by the Old Etonian sportsman Arthur Dunn. Dunn had been employed as a master at Elstree School, which sent b ...

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (sc ...

and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniq ...

, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics, earning an Oxford MA.

Business career

Oppenheimer joined Anglo American in 1968, was appointed a director in 1974, then became deputy chairman in 1983. He resigned in 2001, remaining a non-executive director until 2011. He was appointed deputy chairman of the then Central Selling Organisation (now Diamond Trading Company) in 1984, and deputy chairman of De Beers Consolidated Mines in 1985. He was also appointed chairman of the Diamond Trading Company in 1985. Chairman of the De Beers Group from 1998 to 2012, he retired when the family stake was sold to Anglo American. Oppenheimer appeared on the ''Sunday Times'' Rich List 2018 as the 23rd richest person in the United Kingdom, with a reported fortune of £5.5 billion. He was ranked as the richest person in South Africa on ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' list of

The World's Billionaires ''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking by documented net worth of the wealthiest billionaires in the world, compiled and published in March annually by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in March ...

for 2019, with a fortune reported as US$7.3 billion and, again, on its 2020 list, with a reported fortune of US$7.6 billion in August 2020.

Philanthropy

The Oppenheimer family has directed much of its philanthropic efforts towards preserving the heritage and cultural importance of the Southern African region, as well as to broader community upliftment in the areas of education, health, nature conservation and the arts. Nicky Oppenheimer and his son Jonathan Oppenheimer established the

Brenthurst Foundation The Brenthurst Foundation is a Johannesburg-based think-tank established by the Oppenheimer family in 2004 to support the Brenthurst Initiative in seeking ways to fund African development and to organize conferences on African competitiveness. ...

in 2005 as a way to contribute to the debate around strategies and policies for strengthening Africa's economic performance and enabling inclusive and

sustainable development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The ...

. The family has also long been involved in environmental and

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

issues. The Oppenheimer family partnered with

to establish the Diamond Route in 2006 to maximise the potential of their properties for conservation, research and environmental awareness purposes. The Diamond Route links 8 sites across northern South Africa, stretching from

Namaqualand Namaqualand (khoekhoe: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoe people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into ...

on the west coast, to Kimberley, north to Tswalu in the

Kalahari The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coasta ...

, and to the Brenthurst Gardens in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

, eastwards to Ezemvelo Nature Reserve and northwards to the

Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve {{Location map, South Africa Limpopo, float = right , width=250 , caption = Position of Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve, label = Venetia Limpopo NR, position=background=white, lat=-22.30251, long=29.20412 The Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve is ...

in Limpopo Province. Since 2015 Oppenheimer is also a Rhodes Trustee.

Awards

In 2003, the Technikon Witwatersrand awarded Oppenheimer an honorary doctorate. He received the Presidential Order of Honor (2004) from the former President of Botswana, Festus Mogae, and an honorary fellowship (2009) from the

London Business School London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degrees in management and finance, MBA and PhD). Its motto is " ...

Personal life

In 1968, he married Orcillia "Strilli" Lasch, daughter of industrial tycoon Helli Lasch; both are

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

. His father was born Jewish and converted to Anglicanism.

Publications

References

External links

Biography from De BeersOppenheimer's Waltham Place Gardens and FarmProfile in ''The Economist'', 2003
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oppenheimer, Nicky 1945 births Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford South African mining businesspeople Living people Diamond dealers

Nicky Nicky is a diminutive form of the name Nicholas, Nicola and Nicole, occasionally used as a given name in its own right. It can also be used as a diminutive of Dominic. It may refer to: People Sports * Nicky Adams (born 1986), English-born Welsh ...

People educated at Harrow School South African Anglicans South African billionaires South African businesspeople South African people of German-Jewish descent Rhodes Trustees Conservative Party (UK) donors People educated at Ludgrove School