Adrian Beecroft

Adrian Beecroft is a venture capitalist and the chairman of Dawn Capital, which owns Wonga.com, the online short-term high-interest loans company. He is worth an estimated wealth £100m and is a Conservative Party donor.

Activities

Beecroft was previously senior managing partner at Apax, where he 'played a major part in its international expansion'. It now has over $20 billion under management with over 150 professionals in eight countries.

Education and early career

Beecroft has a degree in physics from Queen's College, Oxford. After graduating in 1968, he worked for ICL in the computer industry for five years. In 1974 he went as a Harkness Fellow to the Harvard Business School, graduating in 1976. He then joined the Boston Consulting Group in London. He became a Vice President of BCG Worldwide in 1982.

Affiliations

• Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) in 1991/92 and represented Apax on the boards of over 20 private and public companies. He was elected to the BVCA Hall of Fame in 2009.

• Beecroft Institute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Oxford University
• joint sponsor of the Oxford Academy
• Chairman of the Cricket Foundation.
• Fellow of the Institute of Physics and an Honorary Fellow of the Queen’s College, Oxford.