Sudhir Choudhrie
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Sudhir Choudhrie (born September 1949) is an Indian-born and London-based businessman with interests in healthcare, aviation, and hospitality.


Early life

Sudhir Choudhrie was born in September 1949, and raised in
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
by his mother, after his father’s early death. Choudhrie has described his mother as his "role model" in life. He has a bachelor's degree in Economics from the
University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...
. His uncle B. K. Kapur was the chairman of
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian state-owned aerospace and defence (military), defence company, headquartered in Bangalore, India. Established on 23 December 1940, HAL is one of the oldest and largest aerospace and defence manuf ...
, the Indian state-owned aerospace and defence company, from at least as early as 1982, until 2013.


Career

After completing his education, Choudhrie chose not to join his grandfather's Delhi real estate business, and began his own business career buying TV equipment from the UK to sell on to the Indian government to develop the country's growing television network in the 1960s and 70s. His business developed as an exporter of consumer goods including farm machinery, initially particularly focused on the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, then India’s largest trading partner. Choudhrie founded the Magnum International Trading Company Ltd in 1975, where he focused on export markets. Choudhrie has served as vice chairman of Alpha C&C Group, an holding company for investments he founded over 30 years ago. He was a director of the chartered airline companies Deccan Aviation Ltd (2007–08) and
Kingfisher Airlines Kingfisher Airlines Limited was an airline group based in India. It was established in 2003 and started its commercial operations in 2005. Through its parent company United Breweries Group, it had a 50% stake in low-cost carrier Kingfisher Red. ...
(2008-). Choudhrie was a non-executive director of
Ebookers Orbitz.com is a travel fare aggregator website and travel metasearch engine. The website is owned by Orbitz Worldwide, Inc., a subsidiary of Expedia Group. It is headquartered in the Citigroup Center, Chicago, Illinois. Background Origin ...
, a travel website, from 1999 to 2005. From 1993 to 2004, Choudhrie served as Latvia's Honorary Consul General to India. In 2013,
Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
awarded him the "Asian Business Lifetime Achievement Year Award 2013". In July 2013 the ''
Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
'' alleged that Choudhrie had been denied a peerage because of concerns about the treatment of patients by the
Alpha Hospital Group Alpha Hospital Group is a private provider of mental health care in England, launched in 2002 by Patricia Hodgkinson, former chief executive of the Florence Nightingale Hospitals Group. Khalid Hameed, Baron Hameed is chairman of the company. It ...
. The company responded by saying "Sudhir Choudhrie does not run or manage Alpha Healthcare or Alpha Hospitals. He retired from being a director of both companies in 2007". In July 2014
the Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
published a correction to a similar story, accepting that there was no evidence to suggest that his peerage was blocked because concerns about Alpha. Choudhrie is thought to have a long-term interest in the defence trade and has been described as "one of India’s key arms dealers". He was allegedly blacklisted by the Indian government due to being suspected of "corrupt or irregular practice", following several investigations into his companies. In February 2014, Choudhrie was detained by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in a bribery investigation into
Rolls-Royce Holdings Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is a British multinational aerospace and defence company incorporated in February 2011. The company owns Rolls-Royce, a business established in 1904 which today designs, manufactures and distributes power systems for ...
. He denied any wrongdoing, was never charged and was released on bail without conditions. The
Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
reported that the bail was completely lifted in July 2014. It also indicated that Choudhrie was unlikely to be a part of the inquiry any further.


Author

In 2017 Choudhrie published ''From My Heart: A Tale of Love, Life and Destiny,'' an autobiographical work focusing on his early life, long term heart condition and experience of a heart transplant operation. The book was a number one international bestseller on Amazon in its first week of release.


Philanthropy

Choudhrie has been a longstanding benefactor of
Green Templeton College Green Templeton College (GTC) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. The college is located on the previous Green College site on Woodstock Road next to the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter in North Oxford and ...
at the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
, where a Library has been named in his honour. Choudhrie holds an honorary Radcliffe fellowship at the college and has supported the annual GTC Emerging Markets Symposium since it began in 2007. Choudhrie is a benefactor of the
Columbia University Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC), also known as the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), is an academic medical center and the largest campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. It includes C ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, where a professorship in
Cardiology Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart d ...
has been established in his name. The Choudhrie family support several charities. Their UK based Path to Success charity works to promote educational opportunities and provide assistance for disabled people, and to help the homeless. Led by Choudhrie's wife Anita, the charity ran a campaign to fund sixty wheelchairs for sixty UK
NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
hospitals in 2013. It supports the Amar Jyoti Trust in India providing educational, sporting and cultural activities for disabled and able bodied children.


Personal life

Choudhrie is married to Anita and they have two sons,
Bhanu Bhanu may be: * an epithet of the deity Surya *Eldest son of the Hindu deities-Shri Krishna and Devi Satyabhama * the name of a place in Nepal: ** Bhanu Municipality, the current municipality ** Bhanu, Nepal, the former VDC ** * a given name; nota ...
and Dhairya. The family lives in London. Choudhrie suffered from the same genetic heart condition that led to the early death of his brother Rajiv in 1998. Following years of ill health, in 1999 Choudhrie's heart also failed and he underwent an emergency
heart transplant A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplant, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. , the most common proce ...
operation at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York. The surgeon was Dr Mehmet Oz who has talked about the operation on his The Dr Oz Show. Choudhrie is now one of the longest surviving heart transplant recipients in the world and has described surviving the operation as his "greatest achievement". The wealth of the Choudhrie family is estimated at US$2 billion.


Arts

Choudhrie enjoys restoring
vintage car A vintage car is, in the most general sense, an old automobile, and in the narrower senses of car enthusiasts and collectors, it is a car from the period of 1919 to 1930. Such enthusiasts have categorization schemes for ages of cars that en ...
s and has one of the finest private collections in India. Choudhrie and his wife Anita collect
Indian art Indian art consists of a variety of art forms, including painting, sculpture, pottery, and textile arts such as woven silk. Geographically, it spans the entire Indian subcontinent, including what is now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, N ...
, particularly
M. F. Husain Maqbool Fida Husain (17 September 1915 – 9 June 2011) was an Indian artist known for executing bold, vibrantly coloured narrative paintings in a modified Cubist style. He was one of the most celebrated and internationally recognised Ind ...
("the Picasso of India"). They founded the Stellar International Art Foundation in 2008, which has collected over 600 pieces, including many by Husain. The Foundation held an exhibition of Husain's art in London in 2015. Choudhrie owns works by Damian Hirst,
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
and
Anish Kapoor Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor (born 12 March 1954) is a British-Indian sculptor specializing in installation art and conceptual art. Born in Mumbai, Kapoor attended the elite all-boys Indian boarding school The Doon School, before moving to the UK ...
.


Politics

Choudhrie is a long term backer of the UK Liberal Democrats and has supported the party financially since 2004, making over £1.5million in donations (personal and company). In 2015 Liberal Democrat leader
Tim Farron Timothy James Farron (born 27 May 1970) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2015 to 2017. He has also served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005, before which he worked ...
appointed Choudhrie as his adviser on India, a role involving helping the party develop its relationship with the British-Indian community and providing advice on Britain's foreign and business relationships with India.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Choudhrie, Sudhir 1949 births Living people Indian aviation businesspeople Indian hoteliers Arms traders Indian expatriates in the United Kingdom Defence industry of India Businesspeople from Delhi Car collectors