Naushad Jivraj

It was in July – just as the year of the Aga Khan’s diamond jubilee was concluding with massive celebrations and fireworks in Lisbon – that the appointment was announced of British businessman Naushad Jivraj as the new president of His Highness Prince Aga Khan Shia Imami Ismaili Council for the UK for a period of three years.

His new position places Jivraj, CEO of the hotel, property and franchise corporate, Queensway Group, in a very senior leadership position within the thriving and prosperous UK Ismaili community, responsible for the welfare of 18,000 Ismailis in this country on whose behalf the council focuses on education, economic planning, legal affairs and health, among many other matters.

Fortunately, Mr Jivraj, who resides in London, adjacent to the Albert Hall and enjoying views over Hyde Park and the Albert Memorial, is very close to the Ismaili Centre on Exhibition Road, and the Queensway Group headquarters on Cromwell Road are also nearby, making it a very tidy and short commute.

Originally from India, the Jivraj family emigrated to Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania in the late 19th century. It was there that Naushad’s father Nurdin, the patriarch of what would later become the Queensway Group, built up a property portfolio in the 1950s and ’60s, together with a retail and wholesale produce enterprise.

The family decided to emigrate once again, to the UK in 1971, after President Julius Nyerere’s China-aligned Leftist government began recklessly seizing private property in Tanzania. Luckily by that time the family’s assets and investments were mainly overseas.

Born in late December 1959, Naushad was a twelve year-old child when he arrived in the UK. It is important to note that his religious instructor in Tanzania, Alwaez Jehangir Merchant, was to continue teaching young Naushad in Kensington after Alwaez and his wife also arrived in the UK. It demonstrates the continuity of the far-flung Ismaili community, and their dedication to maintaining their faith. (Mastersaheb Alwaez and his wife Maleksultan later resided in Vancouver, where he died in 2018.).

In the UK the family’s fortunes, represented by the Queensway group, have only improved since their first hotel was purchased in Earl’s Court in 1973. They bought the Albert Hall mansion block on Hyde Park in 1977, continuing to grow a property portfolio that straddled the globe (for example buying 2000 rental apartments in Toronto). Queensway always followed a business policy – “Acquisitions and developments take place in geographic clusters to maximise economies of scale and enable operating efficiencies” – that was both circumspect and geared to the long-term.

Queensway was soon operating brands such as Holiday Inn, Sheraton, Ramada, and Radisson, across many continents, not least Africa, where Naushad recently signed a management agreement AccorHotels in Nairobi to operate under the Ibis Styles brand. In London and Glasgow Queensway has launched six budget, city-centre Point A hotels (“Built on the insight that savvy travellers are focused on what they’ve come to the city for, rather than the hotel they’re staying at,” he explained).

The company also leveraged its commercial properties by developing a franchise business, running KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks outlets, among others – and opening a drive-thru Starbucks.

In 2006 Naushad had bought Queensway’s first boutique town-house hotel, Montagu Place in Marylebone, London, balancing the appeal of its mass-market brands and franchises with an exclusive and up-market face. In 2017, continuing to broaden the company’s profile at the chic end of the market, he purchased the London private members’ 130-bedroom residence, The Sloane Club, saying, “We intend to respect the history and heritage of the club and to maintain the existing service for members as we invest to further enhance and upgrade the facilities over time.”

In addition to his presidency of the UK Ismaili Council, Naushad is also Chairman of the Focus Humanitarian Assistance Europe Foundation (FOCUS), an affiliate of the Aga Khan Development Network.

In 2015 he completed the Owner/President Management Programme at Harvard Business School.