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.

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.

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

In January 2018 Companies House documents showed that Lord Gadhia had been appointed to the board of directors of fracking firm Third Energy, which holds exploration licences in North Yorkshire. He had been an advisory member since September 2017.

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.

Affilations

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

Lord Jitesh Gadhia, BGL Group website, accessed 31 January 2018

Mr Jitesh Gadhia, Electoral Commission search, 31 January 2018

Mr Jitesh Gadhia, Electoral Commission search, 31 January 2018