Nemir Kirdar


Nemir Amin Kirdar was an Iraqi-British businessman and financier. He lived in London. As a founding father of private equity, and an economic and cultural bridge-builder, he founded Investcorp, a global alternative investment group that now operates out of Bahrain, New York, London, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Doha, and Singapore, He served as CEO for over 30 years until he stood down in 2015 to became Chairman until his retirement in 2017. He died at the age of 83 in 2020.

Career

Kirdar began his banking career in New York in 1969. He then worked in South East Asia and Japan for Allied Bank International. In 1974, he joined Chase Manhattan Bank in New York as vice president. Between 1976 and 1981, Kirdar worked in the Middle East overseeing and directing Chase's banking network in the region.
In 1982, he founded Investcorp, a firm specializing in global alternative investments including private equity, hedge funds, real estate, technology investments and capital growth in the GCC region.
Kirdar was the author of three books: Saving Iraq, In Pursuit of Fulfilment and Need, Respect, Trust.

Early life

Kirdar was born in Kirkuk, Iraq, to a Turkmen family prominent in the politics of the late Ottoman Empire and interwar Iraq. After a military coup overthrew the Iraqi monarchy in 1958, Kirdar fled to the United States to study. He escaped from Iraq in 1958. The much-reported story that he hid in a rolled up carpet in the back of a truck was untrue and invented by Nigel Dempster for a story in the Daily Mail in the early 2000s. Kirdar returned to Iraq in 1960 but soon after the Baathist coup, which produced the regime of Saddam Hussein, he left the country again.
Kirdar graduated from the University of the Pacific in California with a degree in economics. He also held an MBA from Fordham University in New York, and completed Harvard Business School's senior management program.

Academic awards

Kirdar received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Fordham University of New York, Georgetown University in Washington DC; in laws from the University of the Pacific, California; and in economics from Richmond, The American International University in London.
Kirdar was an honorary fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford; member of the United Nations Investments Committee, NYC; member of the board of trustees, Brookings Institution, Washington DC; member of the board of trustees, Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship, Philadelphia, PA; member of the advisory board, School of International & Public Affairs, Columbia University, NYC; founding member of the International Business Council, World Economic Forum, Geneva; member of the Chatham House panel of senior advisers, UK; member of the international council of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; member of the Council for Arab & International Relations, Kuwait; member of the board of trustees, Silatech, Doha, Qatar

Wealth

Kirdar was estimated to have a net worth of over one billion US dollars. Kirdar ranked 206 in the British Rich List 2005. He also ranked No. 26 on the world's most influential Arabs 2009 list.