Ian Karan | |
|---|---|
இயன் கிருகரன் | |
 Ian Karan in 2011 | |
| Hamburg State Minister of the Economic Affairs and Employment | |
| In office 25 August 2010 –7 March 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Axel Gedaschko |
| Succeeded by | Frank Horch |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ian Kirupakaran 17 June 1939 Point Pedro,Ceylon |
| Political party | Christian Democratic Union of Germany |
| Occupation | Businessman |
Ian Kiru Karan (born Ian Kirupakaran;17 June 1939) is a Tamil German businessman and politician.
Kirupakaran was born on 17 June 1939 at Point Pedro Hospital in northern Ceylon. [1] [2] [3] His family were from Kaddaively near Karaveddy in the Vadamarachchi region. [4] Orphaned at a young age,he was educated at Methodist Girls' High School,Point Pedro and Hartley College. [4] [5] [6] [7] After being expelled from Hartley College in 1955,he,with the help of his church,obtained an athletics scholarship to study in London. [4] [6] He then joined the London School of Economics (LSE) but was expelled for non-attendance. [8] [9] [10] [11] Karan had falsely claimed that he was expelled from LSE for participating in Vietnam War protests. [9] [10] [11] Europeans found it difficult to pronounce his name so upon obtaining British citizenship Kirupakaran changed his name to Ian Kiru Karan. [1]
Karan has married twice and has four children (Navena,Oliver,Jessica and Niclas). [4] [12] He is a Christian. [13]
Karan joined Schenker &Co. Ltd,London,a shipping and forwarding subsidiary of a German conglomerate Schenker AG,in 1966 as a management trainee. [4] [8] [14] In 1969 he moved to Switzerland,working as a clerk for the container firm Crowe &Co in Basel. [5] [14] He then moved to Hamburg in 1970,working as a dishwasher at a vegetarian restaurant. [4] [8] [14] After three months he joined the Max Grünhut shipping company as a clerk. [4] [8] [14] He was promoted to departmental manager a year later. [4] [8] He then entered the container business,working as managing director of Lyons Container (Hamburg) and NIC Lease Ltd (Chicago). [5] [14] He went into business on his own in 1975,setting up Container Leasing Agency which served as an agent for his former employer. [1] [4] In 1977 his company,which was now building containers and leasing them,changed its name to CLOU (Container Leasing Company). [4] He sold his company to an Anglo-American competitor in 1993. [4] [8]
After observing a three-year non-compete clause,Karan re-entered the container leasing business in 1996,establishing Capital Lease GmbH in Hamburg. [4] [8] [15] The company,whose worldwide operations were based in Hong Kong,became the fastest growing container leasing company in the world and after four years it became the largest leasing company in Europe. [4] The company was reportedly worth US$400 million. [5] [8] Karan was nicknamed "container king". [4] [5] [8] The highly profit-making company became the seventh largest container company in the world with over 520,000 TEUs. [4] Karan sold Capital Lease to two banks just before the financial crash. [4]
Though not a member of any political party,Karan had supported the controversial Party for a Rule of Law Offensive and its leader Ronald Schill,donating 44,500 euros to the party. [9] [10] [11] He then supported the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU),donating it 570,000 euros over several years. [9] [10] [11] After the CDU took control of the Government of Hamburg,Karan was sworn in as Hamburg's Minister of the Economic Affairs and Employment on 25 August 2010. [6] [16] He resigned on 7 March 2011.
Karan established the Ian Karan Auditorium in the Bucerius Kunst Forum and an auditorium for medical students at the University of Hamburg. [4] [8] He was chairman of the board of trustees of the Hamburg Theatre Festival and is a member of the supervisory board of Hamburger SV. [4] [8] [17] He was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in June 2007 for his social and cultural work. [4] [8] [17] Karan was a British citizen for over forty years before taking up German citizenship in December 2009,allegedly on the recommendations of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. [4] [8] [17] Karan later admitted that Merkel never made such a recommendation. [11]
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