Waheed Ali
Waheed Ali became a Labour life peer and Baron of Norbury at aged 33, the youngest to join the House of Lords in 1998. He is also one of the few openly gay Muslim politicians in the world and a gay rights activist. Waheed Ali left school and started work in financial research at the age of 16 to support his mother and siblings. He moved on to a media career by co-founding an independent television company Planet 24 with Bob Geldof during the 1990s, pioneering TV reality shows like Survivor. Planet 24 was sold to ITV franchisee Carlton Communications in 1999 for £15m. He also backed Elizabeth Murdoch’s TV production company Shine that was sold to her father, Rupert Murdoch’s media group, 21st Century Fox. Of Guyana and Trinidad descent, the well-known British media tycoon is also a businessman and investor. In 2011, he lost millions by investing in loss-making Chorion that owned the Agatha Christie literary rights. He formed a television production company Silvergate Media to acquire the rights to several Chorion TV series like Beatrix Potter. As an investor, he became the chairman of online fashion marketplace ASOS for 12 years until 2012. He later founded the “ASOS of India,” Koovs that was listed in London in 2014. Most recently, he joined the Series B funding round of London-based zero-food-waste app OLIO in September 2021.
