James Rudolph Palumbo, Baron Palumbo of Southwark (born 6 June 1963) is a British entrepreneur and member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

Biography

The eldest son of property developer Peter Palumbo, Baron Palumbo, Jamie was born in London and educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and

Worcester College Worcester College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was ad ...

, Oxford. From 1984 to 1992, Palumbo worked in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

for

Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, doing business as Merrill, and previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investm ...

and

Morgan Grenfell Morgan, Grenfell & Co. was a leading London-based investment bank regarded as one of the oldest and once most influential British merchant banks. It had its origins in a merchant banking business commenced by George Peabody. Junius Spencer Morga ...

in equity capital markets and property finance. In September 1991 Palumbo, together with his school friend Humphrey Waterhouse and DJ Justin Berkmann, founded the

Ministry of Sound Ministry of Sound or Ministry of Sound Group is a multimedia entertainment business based in London with a nightclub, shared workspace and private members' club, worldwide events operation, music publisher (popular music), music publishing busin ...

nightclub in South London. Ministry of Sound expanded into recorded music and by 2014 had become the largest independent music company in the world. In 2016 he sold Ministry of Sound Recordings to the

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

Group for $104 million. In 1994 he launched legal proceedings against his father with his sister, Annabella Adams, claiming his father had mismanaged the family trust; subsequently his father resigned as a trustee. His debut novel about corruption in the modern world, ''Tomas'', was published in 2009.

Stephen Fry Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of ...

called the novel "remarkable... It's as if Thomas Pynchon and Burroughs and Vonnegut got together and had a bastard love child." His second novel, ''Tancredi'', about short-termism in politics, was published in 2011. Following the 2010 election Palumbo helped reorganise Lib Dem headquarters to make the party more efficient in Government. In October 2013, Palumbo was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

taking the title Baron Palumbo of Southwark, of

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

, in the

London Borough of Southwark The London Borough of Southwark ( ) in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council ...

. In 2017 he opened an animal sanctuary in Thailand with Rawipim Paijit, focused on spay and neuter, rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming of street dogs.

Personal life

He lives in London with his Thai friend, Rawipim Paijit. He has a child, born in 1991 to Atoosa Hariri.

References

External links

Voting record at the Public Whip

Street Dog SOS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palumbo, James 1963 births Living people 21st-century British novelists Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford English businesspeople English people of Italian descent Liberal Democrats (UK) donors Liberal Democrats (UK) life peers Ministry of Sound People educated at Eton College Writers from London James Life peers created by Elizabeth II Sons of life peers Palumbo