GIVING back is one of the guiding forces that drives Lord Rumi Verjee, who arrived in Britain to attend boarding school initially.
“My family were dispossessed by Idi Amin of Uganda in 1972 because we were Asians, yet I was able to come here and prosper in this country and become an entrepreneur, and my family and I were able to live in freedom and dignity,” he told the House of Lords in his maiden speech on 12 December 2013.
“This country gave me the opportunity to thrive and I truly hope I can help many more people to have that very same opportunity,” he added.
Lord Verjee has been a serial entrepreneur, leading many successful businesses, but his primary focus is pursuing a number of charitable causes through his Rumi Foundation, which supports humanitarian work through education, innovation and knowledge building.
Passionate in his belief that young people should have access to opportunities to realise their potential, the Rumi Foundation was launched in 2006 and has supported a great number of projects over the years since, not just in the UK, but in India, East Africa, and South America too.
“As an immigrant from East Africa I arrived in the UK with little more than a desire for a good education and hungry for an opportunity to succeed,” Lord Verjee says.
And, this emphasis on education is something that his parents - Roshan and Jimmy Verjee - had instilled him, and according to Verjee, the Rumi Foundation is an ‘essential expression’ of the Verjee family ethos.
“Mum and dad taught me that you don’t mess with education. Because with it comes knowledge, responsibility, and that basically, anything is possible. That was the gospel at home,” he once told New Vision, Uganda’s leading English newspaper.
His father was a UK-trained lawyer, and the wealthy family resided in the city of Kampala, a preserve of the British then. Following the success of the law firm he ran in partnership with his uncle, BKS Verjee, his father expanded into several other businesses and real estate.
“So I was lucky to be born in such a family, a very disciplined family with a strict work ethic and many mentors,” Verjee said, adding that the influences of his mother and grandmother, however, helped him to keep his feet on the ground.
“I was also influenced by my grandmother Mitibai. A great businesswoman and community leader, she taught me the importance of women’s education and the important role they play in the community. Back to my mum, I learned especially from her the importance of being humble and treating everyone with respect, regardless of social status or otherwise,” he said.
“So, even though we were a wealthy family, I, along with my two older brothers Rasool and Shaffique, learned not to get high on it.”
They have some investments in Kenya, where the Aga Khan, the leader of the Ismaili faith, which his family is a member of, had sent his father for work. But much of the Verjee family’s assets were seized by Idi Amin’s regime. After the expulsion of the Asian population from Uganda, Verjee - a fourth generation Indian born in the country – realised that where he studied would also be now where he had to live and work – going back to Uganda or East Africa was not possible.
Verjee went to Newlands School in Sussex and Haileybury College in Hertfordshire. He studied Law at Cambridge University’s Downing College.
The Rumi Foundation established the Verjee Fellowship at Downing College in June 2003 to support a College Fellowship in Medicine.
Despite becoming a barrister, around 1979 he decided to venture into banking, taking a job at Prudential Bache, a brokerage and investment banking company. A trip to the US sparked the idea of creating Domino’s Pizza in the UK and he duly became the original franchisee along with some other partners in 1985.
Within the next four years, the store numbers would reach 48, effectively opening one store a month, and its value on the market had grown by leaps and bounds. Verjee decided it was the best time to sell, and he was not wrong.
Three acquisitions followed, starting with the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea, an old hospital which he renovated into luxury apartments and sold at a premium. In the same month, he bought Thomas Goode & Co, the Mayfair-based retailer of upmarket china, glass and silverware with two Royal Warrants. He was the chairman of the business for over 20 years.
Then, alongside singer Elton John, he bought Watford FC in 1995, taking them from the old Second Division to the Premiership. He co-owned the club till 1999.
“Basically, the old hospital building, the football club and Thomas Goode were the three main buys that set me off onto a journey to acquire property and make more money from it,” he later said.
Today, he is the chairman of The Rumi Endowment Company Limited – a real estate investment business investing in prime UK properties – and also Ipanema Properties in Brazil. He is a founding partner of Creator Fund, which invests in breakthrough technology, and over the last few years he has used his network to help scale up many businesses in the tech sector. He also sits in the advisory council of Blueprint, an independent charity that helps to create a better society through better business.
He was awarded a CBE for his charitable services in 2019, and made a life peer in 2013 as Lord Verjee of Portobello in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. He has been politically active in supporting the Liberal Democrats and was successful in setting up the Liberal Democrats Leadership Programme to find more candidates from under-represented groups.
Despite the heights he achieved in business, he considers the Rumi Foundation as his ‘proudest achievement’, representing the philanthropic spirit that has shaped his family’s ‘cultural DNA’ for generations.
“I am proud of the tradition of charitable giving that runs deep in my family, proud of the work we have done together and proud of those organisations and individuals that we have been able to support,” he says.
“There is a belief I hold very dear, that with success comes the personal responsibility to always act with generosity and compassion; and I look forward to seeing it evolve in the years and generations to come.”
