Simon Murray | |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 March 1940 Leicester, England |
| Occupation(s) | Chairperson Non executive Director |
| Known for | Businessman adventurer author |
| Spouse | Jennifer Mather |
| Children | 3 |
Simon Murray, CBE (born 25 March 1940) is a British Hong Kong-based businessman, adventurer and author. [1]
Murray is the oldest man to reach the South Pole unsupported, at the age of 63.
Murray was born at Leicester, England into an aristocratic family with some tradition of military service. [2] His father belonged to a wealthy family. Murray's grandfather on his father's side retained a permanent suite at the Connaught Hotel, while his grandmother retained a similar suite at Claridges Hotel. Murray's father abandoned the family early on and Murray claims to have had no recollection of him at that time. An uncle paid for Murray to attend Bedford School, an independent school in Bedford, Bedfordshire. In 1960, he joined the French Foreign Legion, and served for five years in the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP). During his service, he fought in the Algerian War against the Front de Libération National (FLN). After rising to the rank of Chief Corporal, he turned down an offer to attend Officers' School in France, and left the Legion in 1965 after completing his service. He wrote of his experiences in the Legion in the book Legionnaire, published in 1978. And later, based on his book he produced the autobiographical movie "Deserter" which released as a DVD.
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 Li Ka-Shing for US$20 million as a precursor to Murray becoming group managing director of Hutchison Whampoa. He stayed for ten years, initiating Hutchison's acquisition of Hong Kong Electric, and negotiating their entry into the oil business through their acquisition of Husky Oil. Whilst CEO of Hutchison, he founded a mobile phone company and, after turning it into the global brand "Orange", it was sold in 1999 for US$36 billion to Mannesmann. [3]
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.
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]
Appointed CBE in 2013, Murray is also a Commandeur of the Order of Merit of the French Republic and a Chevalier de La Legion d’Honneur. He holds an honorary degree in Law, from the University of Bath and attended the (SEP) Stanford Executive Program in the US.
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]
A kinsman of the Dukes of Atholl, Murray married in 1965 his long-time girlfriend, pilot Jennifer (née Mather), with whom he has three children and six grandchildren. She was the first woman to fly around the world in a helicopter. [1]
Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) was an investment holding company based in Hong Kong. It was a Fortune Global 500 company and one of the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. HWL was an international corporation with a diverse array of holdings which included the world's biggest port, and telecommunication operations in 14 countries that were run under the 3 brand. Its businesses also included retail, property development and infrastructure.
Richard Li Tzar-kai is a Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist. The founder and chairman of the private investment group Pacific Century Group (PCG), Li started his career in the 1990s with the founding of STAR TV, a pan-Asian television network. After founding PCG in 1993, he went on to establish PCCW and HKT Trust.
Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, is a multinational conglomerate, based in Hong Kong. It was one of Hong Kong's leading multi-national conglomerates. The company merged with its subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa on 3 June 2015, as part of a major reorganisation, to become part of CK Hutchison Holdings.
Lazard Inc. is a financial advisory and asset management firm that engages in investment banking, asset management and other financial services, primarily with institutional clients. It is the world's largest independent investment bank, with principal executive offices in New York City, Paris and London.
The Orange brand in India, through a complicated set of mergers and divisions, was acquired and eventually retained by Orange S.A.; and currently operates as Orange Business Services India.
Orange Business, the business services arm of Orange S.A., is a global integrator of communications, products, and services for multinational corporations.
Paul Kan Man-lok, CBE, JP, Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, Silver Bauhinia Star is a Chinese technology engineer.
Hutchison Asia Telecom Group or HAT, is a division of Hong Kong-based multinational conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings. The division provides telecommunications services to several Asian countries. The division was formerly incorporated as Hutchison Telecommunications International Limited, known as Hutchison Telecom or HTIL in short. It was an offshore company in the Cayman Islands and a listed company in the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. It operates GSM, 3G and 4G mobile telecommunications services in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam under brands 3, Hutch and Vietnamobile.
Partner Communications Company Ltd. doing business as Partner, formerly known as Orange Israel, is a mobile network operator, internet Wi-Fi, fixed telephony service and OTT/IPTV provider in Israel. It was formerly operating under the Orange brand name until 16 February 2016.
New World Telecommunications Limited also known as New World Telecom, was a fixed line provider of Hong Kong S.A.R., China. It was a subsidiary of New World Development, via New World Telephone Holdings; New World Telecommunications was acquired by a competitor, Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) in February 2016. In the same year New World Telecommunications was renamed to HKBN Enterprise Solutions, as a subsidiary of HKBN.
Canning Fok Kin-ning is a Hong Kong business executive. He is a director or chair of numerous management board in companies of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa. He is hailed as the "King of Employees" since he has been one of the Hong Kong's top-five taxpayers in the past few years.
Asim Ghosh is the former President and CEO of Husky Energy, one of Canada's largest integrated energy companies. He retired in December 2016 and sat on Husky's Board of Directors until December 2020 when it merged with Cenovus Energy Inc.
Kwok Chan was a Hong Kong businessman and member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong.
Craig Ehrlich is an American private investor and entrepreneur, the former head of the GSM Association, a trade organization which represents 800 mobile operators in 220 countries. Ehrlich played a central role in the development of the Asian cable and telecom industry.
CK Hutchison Holdings Limited is a Hong Kong, China-based and Cayman Islands-registered multinational conglomerate corporation. The company was formed in March 2015 through the merger of Cheung Kong Holdings and its main associate company Hutchison Whampoa. It has four core businesses – ports and related services, retail, infrastructure and telecommunications – which operate in over 50 countries, as well as several other investments around the world.
Rothschild & Co is a multinational private and alternative assets investor, headquartered in Paris, France and London, England. It is the flagship of the Rothschild banking group controlled by the British and French branches of the Rothschild family.
Sir David Kennedy Newbigging, OBE, DL is a British businessman and Hong Kong politician born in China. He was the Tai-pan of Jardine Matheson & Co, the leading British trading firm in East Asia and unofficial member of the Executive Council and the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.
HGC Global Communications Limited, formerly known as Hutchison Global Communications Limited, is an internet service provider of Hong Kong. In the past it was part of Hutchison Telecommunications, itself part of a mega-conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings. Hutchison Global Communications was a listed company, via its parent company Hutchison Global Communications Holdings from 2004 to 2005.
