HE WAS once a hungry, impatient and dynamic young entrepreneur chasing dreams of wealth and aspiring to re-establish the good name his family had as both entrepreneurs and philanthropists in Uganda and Kenya.
Today, Lord Rumi Verjee has come full circle, preferring to back others and let them pursue their dreams and ambitions and seeking to support young people on their way.More or less a full-time philanthropist now, what gives him pride and satisfaction is the work of his own foundation and taking it to the next level, Lord Verjee says.Well-connected and still a mover and shaker when the need arises (as many entrepreneurs instinctively are), he has put his charitable efforts into global causes and concerns. This year, the Rumi Foundation formally established a partnership with the Obama Foundation.
The 44th US president’s organisation is dedicated to creating community leaders around the world – identifying and supporting young voices, often unheard and disadvantaged, and supporting and helping them to get an important message across to wider society.Last year, Lord Verjee joined president Obama in Johannesburg to meet Africa’s emerging leaders, and to learn how best to help the next generation make their voices heard.
This year in May, more than 300 young people gathered in Berlin for an Obama Foundation European town hall meet. Lord Verjee helped a group of young Britons get the ear of the former president – three wereshortlisted to talk to him.One, Temi Mwale, an advocate for young people’s rights and a tireless campaigner dedicated to fighting violence and structural disadvantage, caught the attention of the US leader.“It changed her life and the life of those around her,” reports Lord Verjee to the GG2 Power List.
“She’s a really committed young social entrepreneur looking to tackle youth violence in our city. It’s a really sweet spot for us (the Rumi Foundation) – what I am able to do is find these social entrepreneurs and give something back.”For both foundations, there is an accent on finding young people of courage, conviction and compassion, who also have the energy and imagination to induce positive change and tackle glaring inequalities.
“Someone like Temi is recognised by president Obama and she now has that platform,” Lord Verjee explains.There is financial assistance of course, but much of today’s work between charities is about networking, meeting others with similar challenges and being both inspired and ready to join them on a similar journey.“You get 300 people in a room, like in Berlin: they don’t know each other but they get to know each other and learn from each other – that is the key.
It’s about learning as much as having a platform,” he says. “People make connections – one can be involved in tackling crime, another with online bullying.”For him, working with the Obama Foundation is an important milestone. “The emphasis is on forming a few key partnerships with institutions that can really impact and scale projects.”The Rumi Foundation, which was created in 2006, nurtures these young leaders with smaller projects, sharing knowledge, creating bigger networks and mentoring community leaders of the future.
Growing in stature too has been WE Day. A star-studded annual event at the SSE
Arena Wembley that offers a mixture of entertainment with music acts and TED-like talks, it has become hugely popular.This year, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, headlined the event in March, addressing the 12,500-capacity audience made up entirely of young people who had built up enough credits through community service during the year to qualify for a ticket.
The original charity behind WE Day was set up in 1995 by Canadians Craig and Marc Kielburger, and has gone on to become a global powerhouse. Dedicated to helping children, it believes that collective action can help alleviate the pain and suffering of young people internationally – ‘It is about WE rather than me’, and is now run in many UK schools.Lord Verjee co-chairs WE UK with Holly Branson, tycoon Richard Branson’s daughter.“It’s gone from strength to strength.
We can reach a lot of people and there is a great synergy,” he says. “Getting Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex shows its reach and impact.”He remains close to the leadership of the Liberal Democrat party and is excited by the emergence of the new leader Jo Swinson.
The party’s fortunes have changed dramatically, since becoming the clear and obvious party against Brexit.“The political climate has changed a lot this year,” he tells the GG2 Power List. “Jo Swinson is a young, dynamic leader with cabinet experience (she served in the coalition administration of David Cameron and Nick Clegg as a business minister from 2012-15), and up against Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, she really stands out as a modern leader.
She could even dream of being our prime minister.”Lord Verjee is currently less active in business and has handed over control of much of it to the younger generation in his family. He sold his one visible retail business last year – Thomas Goode is something of an institution in Mayfair.
Essentially a tableware and china shop, it has two royal warrants and can trace its history back to the 19th century and the entrepreneur who bears its name. The details of the sale were not disclosed, but he had completed a land deal for the whole block some years earlier, and so it seemed a logical step.Lord Verjee came to the UK to study when his family was uprooted from its base in Uganda under the regime of Idi Amin.
In Uganda, the Verjee family had built a considerable name and fortune, as lawyers and business figures, and were engaged with education and raising living standards for all. Lord Verjee’s father, a distinguished lawyer, was invited to help the newly emergent nation of Kenya, but their roots always remained in Uganda.
A graduate of Downing College, Cambridge, Lord Verjee spent a couple of years in the City, before striking out on his own. His buttonholing of Domino’s Pizza creator Tom Monaghan at a business conference in the US proved to be a stroke of genius. A suitcase with his business plan had been stolen and he had gone all the way to Houston to make his case. As it was, Monaghan recognised the young Verjee’s energy and determination.
Lord Verjee brought Domino’s Pizza to these shores and sold his stake in the 1990s, switching to real estate development and property shortly afterwards. Along the way there was a stint co-owning Watford Football Club (with his friend Sir Elton John) and his fortune is estimated by our sister publication, the Asian Rich List, to be in excess of £300 million.
