Jitesh Kishorekumar Gadhia, Baron Gadhia is a British investment banker, Conservative Party donor 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 ...

. A member of the Leader's Group of high-value donors, he was described by The Herald as a member of

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

's "inner circle".

Education and career

Gadhia was a pupil at

Harrow High School Harrow High School is a co-educational academy in the London Borough of Harrow and a specialist Sports College. It was previously called Gayton High School and Harrow County School for Boys. The school has a sixth form for post-16 studies part ...

formerly Gayton High Comprehensive School (Harrow) from 1982-1986. Gadhia studied economics at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and 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 degree, Master's degrees in management and finance, Master of B ...

, where he was a

Sloan Fellow The Sloan Fellows program is a middle and senior-career master's degree program in general management and leadership offered at MIT, Stanford University, and London Business School (LBS). Initially supported by a grant from Alfred P. Sloan, fo ...

. Gadhia is a senior managing director at

The Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter G. Peterson, Peter Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman, Stephen Schwarzman, who h ...

, a US private equity firm. Prior to this, he worked for

Barclays Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

, ABN AMRO, and

Barings Bank Barings Bank was a British merchant bank based in London. It was one of England's oldest merchant banks after Berenberg Bank, Barings' close collaborator and German representative. It was founded in 1762 by Francis Baring, a British-born member ...

, which collapsed while he worked there. He also sits on the board of

UK Financial Investments UK Financial Investments (UKFI) was a limited company set up in November 2008 and mandated by the UK government to manage HM Treasury's shareholdings in Lloyds Banking Group, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and UK Asset Resolution. UKFI ceased ...

. Gadhia was a trustee of

Nesta Nesta (formerly NESTA, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is a British foundation, registered as a charity, which supports innovation. Nesta was originally funded by a £250 million endowment from the UK National Lotter ...

, and has written for

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

. In September 2017, Gadhia was appointed a non-executive director of fracking company Third Energy, though questions were raised about a potential conflict of interest when the company was late publishing its annual results, amid concerns about its financial resilience and ability to fund clean-up costs. Gadhia resigned as a director in September 2018.

Political support

He has donated at least £225,000 to the Conservative Party, and another £18,000 to the

Conservative Friends of India The Conservative Friends of India is linked to the Conservative Party in the UK, and is a membership organisation which engages with the British Indian community and played a significant role in the Conservative campaign in the 2019 general electi ...

. He has also donated at least £25,000 to the Liberal Democrats in Scotland. He was involved in the cash for access scandal in 2014, along with

James Stunt Petra Ecclestone (born 17 December 1988) is a British heiress, model, fashion designer and socialite. Early life Ecclestone was born in London, the younger daughter of former Armani model Slavica Ecclestone, Slavica Radić and English Formula ...

(billionaire art dealer, gambling and shipping tycoon) and Alexander Temerko (Russian energy tycoon), and approximately 40 others. In August 2016 it was announced that he was to be made 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 ...

in as part of Cameron's

Resignation Honours The Prime Minister's Resignation Honours in the United Kingdom are honours granted at the behest of an outgoing prime minister following their resignation. In such a list, a prime minister may ask the monarch to bestow peerages, or lesser honours ...

list. In the afternoon of 31 August he was created Baron Gadhia, of Northwood in the County of Middlesex. In October 2022, he was appointed to the Court of Directors of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gadhia, Jitesh Gadhia, Baron Year of birth missing (living people) Conservative Party (UK) life peers Life peers created by Elizabeth II British investment bankers Living people British people of Indian descent