David Garrard
Sir David Eardley Garrard is a retired British property developer.
Contents
Early life and education
David Eardley Garrard was born on 12 January 1939. He grew up in Stamford Hill, North London, where his father had a small upholstery business, and attended Battersea Grammar in South London. Garrard’s sister married Philip Rose, whose family owned the commercial property company Land Investors which had made a fortune in the 1960s property boom.[1] Rose subsequently became a mentor to Garrard who after school began work as a commercial estate agent.
Business
In 1986, the Rose family agreed to a £71.1 million takeover of Land Investors led by Garrard in partnership with Berish Berger, grandson of the property tycoon Gerson Berger. The two men created a public vehicle for the deal, BCPH, which was majority owned by their joint venture Reliable Properties.[2]
Berger subsequently bought out Garrard’s 25% stake in Land Investors, changing the name to Land & Property Trust. Garrard used the revenue from that sale to launch his own property company, Minerva, with his protégée Andrew Rosenfeld, whom he had recruited to Land Investors.[3] Garrard served as chairman and Rosenfeld as Chief Executive. The pair floated the company in 1996. [4] Three years later the Sunday Times wrote that: ‘In little more than a decade David Garrard and Andrew Rosenfeld, the duo who founded Minerva, have built up the value of the property company from £3m to £300m.’[5]
On 31 March 2005 Garrard stepped down as Chairman of Minerva plc and was replaced by Rosenfeld, then still Chief Executive, at the same time selling a large stake in the company held through family trusts for an estimated £35 million. Along with his wife, Garrard then became a tax exile in Switzerland, living in a suite at the Mandarin Oriental in Geneva.
Minerva is valued at over £500 million.[6]
Loan to the Labour Party
In 2006 it was revealed Garrard had loaned the Labour Party £2.3 million. He was part of a list which included Richard Caring, Lord Sainsbury, Rod Aldridge, Chai Patel, Andrew Rosenfeld and Barry Townsley who had 'loaned' nearly £14million to the party. The move towards transparency came from a combination of pressure from the other parties and plans to introduce a new law banning secret loans to parties. A number of those who provided the party with loans were also nominated for peerages.[7]
Donations
| Date | Name of donor | Amount | Donated to | Subsidiary (parties only) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23/05/2003 | Sir David Garrard | £200,000.00 | Labour Party | Central Party |
| 31/07/2008 | Sir David Garrard | £352,278.00 | Labour Party | Central Party |
| 10/09/2012 | The Maureen and David Garrard Foundation, 25 Harlley Street | £1,570.00 | The Rt Hon Jim Murphy MP | |
| 31/10/2013 | Sir David Garrard | £60,000.00 | Labour Party | Central Party |
| Sir David Garrard | £25,000.00 | Better Together 2012 | ||
| 16/06/2014 | Sir David Garrard | £629,570.31 | Labour Party | Central Party |
Affiliations
Notes
- ↑ Rupert Steiner, ‘Property tycoon with a multi-storey personality – Profile’, Sunday Times, 1 October 2000.
- ↑ Judith Huntley, ‘Agreed bid for Land Investors’, The Times, 7 May 1986, p.17.
- ↑ Minerva Property, ‘Retirement of Sir David Garrard and Appointment of Andrew Rosenfeld as Chairman and Ivan Ezekiel as Finance Director’, 3 March 2005. http://www.minervaproperty.com/investors/comnews/?id=1668
- ↑ Matthew Lynn, ‘Property whiz-kid who was to his manor born – Profile’, Sunday Times, 25 January 1998
- ↑ John Waples, ‘Minerva duo become hot property’, Sunday Times, 10 October 1999
- ↑ Marcus Williamson Andrew Rosenfeld: Businessman who made a fortune from property then became a noted philanthropist and Labour Party donor Independent, 13 February 2015, accessed 25 March 2015
- ↑ BBC News Labour reveals secret loans list, 20 March 2006, accessed 25 March 2015
- ↑ Electoral Commission, Donation Search, accessed 25 March 2015
