Jitesh Gadhia

Jitesh Kishorekumar Gadhia, (Baron Gadhia of Northwood in the County of Middlesex) is a British investment banker, Conservative Party donor and member of the House of Lords.

A member of the Prime Minister's Leader's Group of high-value donors, he was considered a member of ex-PM David Cameron's inner circle. He was raised to the peerage in August 2016 as part of Cameron's resignation honours list of Lords appointments.

Career

Investment banking

Lord Gadhia has been senior managing director of the advisory business of giant private equity Blackstone Group since 2010. He is also an independent non-executive director of BGL Group whose insurance and financial holdings include the well-known comparethemarket.com. Gadhia has previously held senior positions at Barclays Capital, Dutch bank ABN AMRO and also worked for Britain's oldest merchant bank Baring Brothers at the time of its collapse.

Government roles

In 2014 he was appointed to the board of UK Financial Investments (UKFI), a limited company set up in 2008 to manage the Government’s investments in banks bailed out during the credit crunch (Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group) and a significant portfolio of mortgage assets.

Fracking director

This article is part of the Spinwatch Fracking Portal and project

Companies House documents show that Lord Gadhia was appointed on 22 January 2018 as a director of Third Energy Onshore Limited, which holds fracking exploration licences in North Yorkshire. He had been an adviser to Third Energy, alongside businessman Keith Cochrane since September 2017.

Lords' Register declarations

As at 1 February 2018:

Category 1: Directorships

• Director, BGL (Holdings) Limited and Chairman of its subsidiary Compare The Market Limited (financial products price comparison and distribution)
• Director, UK Financial Investments Limited
• Director, UK Government Investments Limited
• Proposed Director, Third Energy Onshore Limited (oil & gas appraisal and development)

Category 2: Remunerated employment, office, profession etc

• Financial Adviser, Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited

Category 10: Non-financial interests (d)

• Prime Minister's appointed member, UK-India CEO Forum
• Member of Vice Chancellor's Circle of Advisers for India, Cambridge University
• Adviser, Avanti Schools Trust

Category 10: Non-financial interests (b)

• Member of UK Advisory Board, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)
• Member of Advisory Board, City Hindus Network
• Member, Young Global Leaders Endowment Fund, Capital Campaign Committee

Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats donor

Ghadia gave £214,700 in donations to the Conservative Party between December 2009 and July 2015 according to the Electoral Commission database. He has not made any individual contributions since.

Lib Dems donor

Ghadia gave the Scottish branch of Lib Dems £25,000 in September 2014.

Affiliations

• Conservative Friends of India, Gadhia donated £18, 020 between 2012 and 2014.