Jonathan Alexander Metliss

Jonathan Alexander Metliss (born 12 June 1949) is a British corporate lawyer and Zionist activist. He is a trustee of the Henry Jackson Society, a member of Conservative Friends of Israel and an executive of the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre.

Education and career

Metliss Metliss is a solicitor who specialises in corporate finance and take-overs and mergers, fund raisings, joint ventures and Stock Exchange issues. He graduated from the University of Southampton in 1970. He qualified as a solicitor in October 1973 and joined Nabarro Nathanson before becoming a merchant banker with Capel Court Corporation in Sydney. In 1978 he returned to London and joined Berwin Leighton as an assistant solicitor. In 1982 when Stanley J. Berwin, one of the partners of Berwin Leighton, left to found his own firm SJ Berwin, Metliss became a founder member. He served as senior corporate finance partner and head of the firm's Sports Business Group until 2003 when he became a consultant to the firm. In October 2008 he joined Davenport Lyons as a partner in the Corporate Department.

He has also been involved in a number of business corporations. He has worked as a consultant to Shore Capital Group plc and Structadene Ltd and a director of London Freeholds plc and Interlaw Ltd.

Private health care lobbying

Metliss has been romantically linked with Martha Greene, an aide to Cherie Blair. In 2006 the Daily Mail revealed that an intervention by Cherie Blair led to a meeting being arranged between Tony Blair's chief adviser on health Paul Corrigan and Harry Hyman, head of Nexus Healthcare. Metliss was a director of Nexus Healthcare and also attended the meeting in June 2006, which emails showed was arranged by Martha Greene. Harry Hyman subsequently emailed Paul Corrigan saying: 'I thought it was a more than useful chat and, hopefully, Nexus can be of some assistance to you in your various activities in the health sector.'

Metliss was at that time also a board member of General Medical Clinics plc which was awarded an £8million contract to operate the country's first privately-run NHS walk-in centre.

Israel and Zionism

Metliss's entry in Debrett's People of Today notes his involvement in a number of Jewish organisations including several Zionist groups and other organisations affiliated to the academic and business communities in Israel.

As at 7 September 2010 Debrett's listed him as a member of Conservative Friends of Israel, a executive of the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM), a joint secretary and executive member of the Parliamentary Committee Against Antisemitism and a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee Against Anti-Semitism (which perhaps should refer to the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism).

Debrett's also lists Metliss as a member of the Executive of the Israeli British Business Council; a director and member of the Executive of the British-Israel Chamber of Commerce; a director of the Weizmann Institute Foundation and a vice-chairman of the Friends of the Weizmann Institute (UK) – both of which are connected to the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel; a chairman of the British Friends of Haifa University, a member of the Advisory Board of Tel Aviv University Business School and the Board of Governors of Haifa University. He is also vice president of the Commonwwealth Jewish Council, a member of the Advisory Board of Goldrock Investments - an Israeli fund investing in pre-IPO situations - and according to the Charity Commission is a trustee of the British Friends of Yad Vashem – Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

Other interests

In 2001 Metliss was appointed an advisory member of UK Trade and Investment - the Government organisation which promotes overseas trade and foreign direct investment - and he was also appointed a member of the Government's Working Group on Football Disorder. He is a director of the Southern Africa Business Association, a member of the Comittee on South African Trade, the Hong Kong UK Business Forum, the Parkes Centre Devpt Bd University of Southampton, and the Advisoryy Group of the football anti-racism group Kick It Out.