Simon Murray (businessman)
Simon Murray CBE | |
---|---|
Born | Leicester, England | 25 March 1940
Occupation(s) | Chairperson Non executive Director |
Known for | Businessman adventurer author |
Spouse | Jennifer Mather |
Children | 3 |
Simon Murray,
Murray is the oldest man to reach the South Pole unsupported, at the age of 63.
Early life
Murray was born at
Business career
On leaving the Foreign Legion in 1965, he got married and moved to Hong Kong where he worked for Jardine Matheson for fourteen years. After that, he left to start his own company, Davenham Investments, a project advisory company. N.M.Rothschild took a 50% stake in Davenham. Amongst many high-profile deals, Davenham went on to represent Mitsui in the Singapore Mass Transit Railway project.
In 1984, Davenham was sold to
From 1994 to 1998, Simon was the Executive Chairman of the Deutsche Bank Group in Asia. He then established his own company, General Enterprise Management Services Ltd (GEMS), a mid-sized investment group operating across Asia.[4] In addition to this Simon was a founder of Distacom which made a number of mobile telecoms investments including Madacom in Madagascar, Spice Telecom in India and Sunday Communications in Hong Kong. He has also invested in other mobile operations in New Zealand, San Marino, Papua New Guinea and elsewhere.
Murray was the chairman of Glencore from 2011 to 2013.[4] He later became chairman of Gulf Keystone Petroleum from 2013 to 2015.[5] He has served on boards and held advisory positions with a number of other large companies, including Vodafone, Tommy Hilfiger Corporation, Vivendi Universal, Usinor SA, Hermes, General Electric (USA), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Macquarie Bank, N.M. Rothschild, and Bain (the consultancy company).[4] He continues to serve on the advisory board of Lightbridge Corporation (USA), and was on the Development Advisory Board of Imperial College, London.
Murray is currently the Executive Chairman of GEMS, and a board director of Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd, Orient Overseas (International) Ltd, Wing Tai Properties Ltd, Arnhold Holdings Ltd, Richemont SA, Essar Energy plc, Omnicorp Ltd and IRC Ltd.
Adventurer
Following a suggestion by his wife, Murray joined Pen Hadow for a trek to the Geographic South Pole.[1] The 1,200 km trek started in early December 2004 at Hercules Inlet on the Zumberge Coast, Antarctica and was completed when they reached the South Pole about two months later.[6] They climbed up to 2,835 m above mean sea level on the way.[6] Murray became the oldest man to reach the South Pole unsupported.[1]
Honours
Appointed
Television
Murray presented 'The Legion is My Country', a BBC Radio 4 documentary (produced by Alec Reid) celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the French Foreign Legion. It was broadcast on 26 May 1981. Also in the 80s, Murray presented a documentary on the French Foreign Legion, where he explained the traditions and folklore that surround this elite force.[7] He also appeared and contributed on the documentary series Escape to the Legion[8] and Weaponology.[9]
Personal life
A kinsman of the
References
- ^ a b c d "Desert Island Discs with Simon Murray". Desert Island Discs. 4 January 2009. BBC. Radio 4.
- ISBN 0-89141-887-3.
- ^ "$36B Orange consumed". CNN Money. 21 October 1999.
- ^ a b c "Simon Murray". Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
- ^ "Gulf Keystone ex-chairman says he was forced out, tried to lure Exxon". Reuters. 1 April 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
- ^ a b Adler, Claire (Autumn 2003). "Pen Hadlow". UCL People: 2.
- ^ "The French Foreign Legion presented by Simon Murray". YouTube. 6 May 2011. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
- ^ "YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
- ^ "YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2014.