Aamer Ahmad Sarfraz, Baron Sarfraz (; born 25 September 1981) is a

British-Pakistani British Pakistanis (; also known as Pakistani British people or Pakistani Britons) are Britons or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes people born in the UK who are of Pakistani descent, Pakist ...

businessman and politician. He was previously a Conservative Party Treasurer, before being nominated for a life peerage by

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

in the 2019 Dissolution Honours List.

Background

Sarfraz was born on 25 September 1981 to a

Pakistani Muslim Islam is the largest and the state religion of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan has over 231.69 million adherents of Islam (excluding the administrative territory of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan) making it the second-large ...

family in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He grew up in

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

and migrated to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 2002. He is a graduate of

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

, and the Royal College of Defence Studies.

Business career

Sarfraz is the founder of NetZeroAg, an agriculture business working with

smallholder A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...

farmers in Asia. Sarfraz was previously a managing director at The Electrum Group, a

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

firm, and a Venture Partner at

Draper Associates Timothy Cook Draper (born June 11, 1958) is an American venture capital investor, and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ),

, an early-stage technology

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm.

Conservative Party fundraising

As a Conservative Party Treasurer, Sarfraz chaired the Business and Entrepreneurs' Forum, described as 'a network of business leaders that support the Conservative Party', charging £3,000 a year for membership. Since 2018, he has donated £172,500 to the Conservative Party.

Philanthropy

Sarfraz established The Lord Sarfraz Foundation, which predominantly works with underprivileged communities in Pakistan. The Sarfraz Lecture is held annually at Wolfson College Oxford focusing on the history and culture of Pakistan.

House of Lords

Sarfraz was nominated to the House of Lords on 31 July 2020, and was created Baron Sarfraz, ''of Kensington in the Royal London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea'' on 8 September 2020. Sarfraz took his seat in the House of Lords on 28 September 2020, and delivered his maiden speech on 19 October 2020. Sarfraz stated that improving relations between Pakistan and the United Kingdom would be a fundamental part of his new work.

Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy

In January 2022, he was appointed as the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

Committee Appointments

Since January 2021, Sarfraz has been a member of the

Science and Technology Committee The Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The original Science and Technology Committee was abolished upon the creation of the Innovation, Univ ...

. Since March 2023, he has been a member of the AI in Weapon Systems Committee, and since June 2023, a member of the

Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGra ...

(JCNSS).

Advocacy

In October 2020, Sarfraz praised the UK government's support for

Rohingya Muslims The Rohingya people (; ; ) are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who predominantly follow Islam from Rakhine State, Myanmar. Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an estimated 1.4 million Ro ...

, and called on it to redouble its humanitarian efforts to support religious minorities around the world. Lord Sarfraz called on the newly established UK Infrastructure Bank to invest directly in companies and “do the difficult direct deals, not outsource their responsibilities to third party fund managers". He has advocated for the launch of a UK Central Bank Digital Currency and for the Chief Executive of the FCA to issue guidance to the crypto industry. Lord Sarfraz criticised the IMF's strict conditionality on developing countries and said that the UK should use its influence “to ensure the IMF is offering loan terms that countries can accept” and that the IMF “needs to take a radically new approach to its lending practices”. Sarfraz has called on the UK government to increase support for the alternative proteins sector and in 2022 launched the UK's Alternative Proteins Association.

Arms

Sarfraz was granted a coat of arms with a baronial coronet by the

College of Arms The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional Officer of Arms, officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the ...

. His shield contains a depiction of the dome of The Prophet's Mosque in

Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

, the first such instance in English heraldry. He was also granted heraldic supporters: a lion for the United Kingdom and a snow leopard for Pakistan. His crest features snow-topped mountains in reference to Islamabad, topped by an Islamic crescent. His motto is "Faith Service".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarfraz, Aamer Sarfraz, Baron 1981 births British businesspeople of Pakistani descent Conservative Party (UK) life peers Living people Politicians from Islamabad Boston University alumni Alumni of the London School of Economics Life peers created by Elizabeth II Conservative Party (UK) donors British Muslims Conservative Party (UK) officials 21st-century Pakistani politicians