Douglas Alan Barrowman is a Scottish businessman and investor who founded and is Chairman of the Knox Group of Companies under which the companies Principal Contractors Limited and SmartPay Management promoted tax planning schemes to contractors who subsequently became subject to the controversial Loan Charge, as HMRC came to portray these schemes as avoidance; subsequently Government and HMRC began targeting thousands of contractors who took up such schemes, and held those contractors liable for large tax bills - consequently seven contractor suicides have been reported, while it appears Barrowman and his group have not been pursued.
After graduating, Barrowman completed his professional examinations and qualified as a Chartered Accountant. At the age of twenty he set up paintball sites in Scotland as his first business. He then spent three years at 3i, a private equity fund. Barrowman resigned from 3i in 1992, to set up his own corporate finance practice during the 1990s. He exited from this practice in 1999, to concentrate on his private investment vehicle Aston Ventures, which he founded in the late 1990s. Over the next ten years, Aston Ventures made 13 acquisitions of "old economy" businesses, including the third largest cable making company in the world B3 Cables, with a total turnover of about £400 million over that period. In 2008 Barrowman moved to the Isle of Man and founded The Knox Group of Companies which owned several businesses as well as Barrowman's interest in Aston Ventures. The Group is engaged in private equity, property and wealth management, which has funds under management and administration of £1.5 billion. The Knox Group provided offshore loans that attracted attention in the UK media and Parliament after new rules concerning disguised remuneration were introduced. In 2011 Barrowman co-founded the KHG Private Equity Fund.In 2017 he became the interim Chairman of Ve Interactive, after an emergency cash injection and investment into the firm.
Personal life
Barroman has six homes, an automobile collection with fifteen cars, and a private jet. He was featured on a 2015 episode of the television seriesMillion Pound Mega Yacht, featuring his 183-foot yacht named Turquoise. He is an art collector, with pieces by Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Marc Chagall. Barrowman has four children, two from each of his prior marriages. Barrowman is also the founder of The Barrowman Foundation, a charitable organisation. Barrowman lent pieces from his art collection to institutions such as the Manx Museum. Barrowman has also lent pieces to London Galleries, such as his George DanielsSpace Traveller Watch, which was featured at the V&A for the exhibition What is Luxury. On 26 December 2018, Michelle Mone confirmed her engagement to Doug Barrowman. Michelle has three children from her former marriage to Michael Mone whom she divorced in 2011, Rebecca, Declan and Bethany, and Doug has four children from two separate marriages.
