Swraj Paul
Swraj Paul, Baron Paul (born 1931) is an Indian-born, British-based business man. He was knighted by the Queen in 1978. In 1996 he became a life peer, taking the title Baron Paul of Marylebone in the City of Westminster.
Background
Swraj Paul was born in Jalandhar in 1931. His father ran a small foundry, making steel buckets and farming equipment. Swraj Paul was educated at the Punjab University and later obtained a Master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.
On his return to India, Swaraj joined the Apeejay Group, which his father had founded. It was a twist of fate that he had to visit London to get his daughter treated for leukemia. He took over the operations of Apeejay Overseas and relocated permanently to London in 1966. After the Apeejay family partition, Lord Swaraj Paul renamed the company Caparo. From acquiring one steel unit, he went on to acquire more and founded the Caparo group in 1978, which developed into one of the leading producers of welded steel tube and spiral welded pipe in the UK. He stepped down from the management of the Caparo group in 1996, handing over his empire to his three sons.
Affiliations
He holds the Pro-Chancellorship of Thames University (1998) and its Governorship (1992-97), and the Chancellorship of the University of Wolverhampton and the University of Westminster. He is a member of the Foreign Policy Centre Advisory Council and MIT's Mechanical Engineering Visiting Committee. He is the chairman of the Olympic Delivery Committee with the key task of initiating measures to acquire land and provide infra-structure for the London Olympics 2012.
