Director

Vincent Abrams is the Founder & Director of Northrup Drummond, he was previously Founder & Chairman at Merlin Publishing which published I-MAGAZINE.

Honorary Vice Chairman

Warren Buffett is a legendary American investor, philanthropist, and former CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, widely regarded as one of the most successful investors in history. Known as the "Oracle of Omaha,", he advocates for long term holding.

Special Advisor

Kenneth Irvine Chenault is an American businessman who was Chairman and CEO of American Express AMEX from 2001 to 2018. Since 2018, he has been Chairman and Managing Director of General Catalyst, a venture capital firm.

CEO Northrup Drummond

James has more than 35 years experience in UK commercial real estate investment. In 1987 James joined Drivers Jonas undertaking investment transactions in commercial property, as well as advising lenders on their distressed loan books and implementing loan restructuring.

From 1994 to 2011 James was a partner at Franc Warwick on behalf of institutions, property companies, and private clients, across all sectors of UK commercial real estate.

CO CEO Northrup Drummond

Helen has worked in commercial real estate for over 20 years, having started her career with British Airways managing their property portfolio.

Following five years in private practice, she joined Valad (formerly Teesland iog and Scarborough Developments) working with the Asset Management and Development teams.

Over the next 12 years, Helen worked across both commercial and residential property sectors, dealing with assets valued in excess of £400m.

Chairman Northrup Drummond

Antony has worked in commercial real estate for over thirty years, starting his career at Weatherall Green & Smith, followed by a two-year period at Chestertons. He then spent twenty years at Strutt & Parker, focusing on the Central London Investment markets. 

Philanthropy Advisor

Melinda French Gates is a prominent American philanthropist, businesswoman, and global advocate for women and girls. After a 25-year tenure as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which she helped establish in 2000, she departed in 2024 to focus on her own organization, Pivotal Ventures, and a $1 billion commitment to support women's rights.

Advisor

Sir James Dyson is a renowned British inventor, industrial designer, and entrepreneur best known for founding Dyson while championing engineering education through the James Dyson Foundation. 

Busines Advisor

Kenneth Olisa OBE, FRSA, FBCS is a British businessman and philanthropist. He was appointed HM Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London in 2015. He is Deputy-Chair of the Institute of Directors, he served as a Director of a FTSE-100 company (Reuters) and In 2000, Sir Kenneth founded Interregnum.

He is now Chairman of Restoration Partners, a private technology merchant bank advising growth companies.

Advisor

Sir Richard Branson is an English business magnate and adventurer who founded the Virgin Group a conglomerate that has managed more than 40 companies across sectors like music, travel, and telecommunications.

Advisor

William Waldorf Astor, 4th Viscount Astor is a British businessman, politican and member of the prominent Astor family. He has sat as a Conservative hereditary peer in the House of Lords since 1973, formally taking his seat in 1972 after turning 21, and was one of the 92 elected to remain after the House of Lords Act 1999.

African Investment Fund Advisor

Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian industrialist and philanthropist. As founder of the Dangote Group, he built a massive conglomerate dominating cement, sugar etc in Nigeria. 

CEO Black Stone Fund

Steven Bartlett is a prominent, British entreprenuer, investor, author, and media personality, famous for hosting the hit podcast "The Diary of a CEO," being the youngest-ever judge on BBC's "Dragons' Den," and founding successful companies like Social Chain, Flight Story, and thirdweb.

Born in Botswana in 1992, he built his career through social media marketing, later expanding into media, investment, and Web3 technology, becoming a leading voice in business and digital culture

American Investment Fund

Advisor Robert F. Smith is a prominent American businessman, investor, and philanthropist, best known as the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a leading private equity firm focused on software, data, and technology-enabled businesses. He is one of the richest African Americans, known for investing in enterprise software, supporting HBCUs.

Asian Investment Fund

Masayoshi Son is a visionary Japanese entrepreneur and investor, best known as the founder and CEO of SoftBank Group, a Tokyo based tech holding company.

Renowned for his investment style, Son established the Vision Fund, backing major tech firms like Alibaba, ARM, and ByteDance.

Advisor

Bernard Arnault is Chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton.

The world’s leading luxury products group. He has been awarded the honorary titles of Grand-croix de la Légion d’Honneur and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.

Advisor

Baron Hastings of Scarisbrick, CBE is currently the Professor of Leadership at the Stephen R. Covey Leadership Centre at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, Utah State University, USA, and sits on the Concordia Leadership Council. He served as Chancellor of Regent's University London from October 2016 to October 2021. He has been appointed as the current Chair of the SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) Board of Trustees and is an NED at Saxton Bampfylde.

Hastings is also Chairman of the Council of ZANE, a development aid agency focused on Zimbabwe, and Vice President of Tear Fund. In 2011, he became Vice President of UNICEF, the UN Children's and Education Fund.

African Investment Fund Advisor

Chief Michael Adenuga Jr is a Nigerian businessman. His company Globacom is Nigeria's second-largest telecom operator and also has a presence in Ghana and Benin. He also owns stakes in the Equitorial Trust Bank.

Conservation And Environment Advisor

David Mayer de Rothschild is a British adventurer, ecologist, and environmentalist. Best known for captaining the Plastiki—a 60-foot catamaran made from 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles—across the Pacific Ocean, he has dedicated his life to highlighting the urgent need for global ecological advocacy and sustainability.

Born in London, England, he is the youngest child of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and his second wife, Victoria Lou Schott. His middle name, "Mayer," is a tribute to the founder of the Rothschild banking empire, Mayer Amschel Rothschild. While rooted in one of the world's most famous banking dynasties, he rejected a traditional career in finance to pursue extreme expeditions and environmentalism.

Rural And Heritage Advisor

Peregrine Cavendish 12th Duke of Devonshire, KCVO, CBE, DL, is an English peer, estate manager, and horse racing administrator. Nicknamed "Stoker," he succeeded to the dukedom in 2004. He is an owner-occupier of the historic Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, which his family has owned since 1549.

The Duke is well known in the world of horse racing and served as Her Majesty's Representative at Ascot and chairman of Ascot Racecourse Ltd. In 1980 he was elected to the Jockey Club and in 1989 he was appointed its Senior Steward or Chairman.

Zoological Advisor

Sir David Frederick Attenborough is an English broadcaster, natural historian, and writer. His presenting career began as host of Zoo Quest in 1954, and has spanned seven decades; it includes the nine documentary series forming The Life Collection, Natural World, Wildlife on One, the Planet Earth franchise, The Blue Planet and Frozen Planet.

Rural Philanthropy Advisor

The Prince of Wales undertakes a number of charitable activities and projects and carries out public and official duties in the UK and overseas. Prince William is Patron of a number of charities which are focused on conservation and through The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales, he has spearheaded global initiatives to protect our natural world. 

Prince William launched The Earthshot Prize – a global environmental prize and platform to discover, award, celebrate and scale ground-breaking solutions to repair and regenerate the planet every year until 2030.

United States Investment Advisor

Roy Donahue "Don" Peebles is an American real estate entrepreneur, author, and political fundraiser. He is the founder, Chairman, and CEO of the Peebles Corporation, a privately held real estate investment and development company established in 1983. The firm focuses on luxury commercial and residential developments in major U.S. cities including New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Miami.

Advisor

Sheila Johnson is a pioneering American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and hotelier, best known as the co-founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and the first African American woman to achieve billionaire status. She is the founder and CEO of the Salamander Collection, a portfolio of luxury resorts, and holds ownership stakes in three professional sports teams.

United States Investment Advisor

Alex Karp is the co founder and CEO of Palantir Technologies, a major software firm that specialises in big data analytics for government and commercial clients. Known for his eccentric leadership style, philosophical background he has a (Ph.D. in social theory).

African Investment Fund Advisor

Abdul Samad Rabiu is a leading Nigerian industrialist and founder of BUA Group, a major conglomerate with interests in cement, food (sugar, pasta), and infrastructure. Abdul Samad Rabiu was born and raised in Kano in the north-western part of Nigeria and is a Hausa man. He visited Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, US and later returned to Nigeria to oversee the family business.

Arts & Culture Advisor

Sir Damon Buffini was a founding partner of alternative asset manager Permira where he was Chairman and Managing Partner from 1997-2010. He remained a partner at Permira until the end of 2015 completing a 27 year career with the firm.

In 2020 Damon was appointed as Chair of the £2bn Culture Recovery Fund which was granted and invested to ensure the survival and sustainability of the UK’s culturally significant organisations. Damon is also currently Chair of the Royal National Theatre. During his career Damon has served on many other boards including Hugo Boss AG; Wellcome Trust; the Royal Shakespeare Company and Schroders PLC.

American Investment Fund Culture Advisor

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is an eminent American literary critic, historian, and filmmaker, renowned for elevating African American literature into the Western canon “popularly known by his childhood nickname 'Skip', he is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker. He directs the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University.

Art Advisor

Larry Gagosian (born April 19, 1945) is a towering, self-made American art dealer who founded the global Gagosian Gallery empire. Known for pioneering museum-quality, large-scale exhibitions, he started by selling framed posters on the street in Los Angeles. Today, his galleries employ around 300 people across 18 international exhibition spaces.