Shelbin MS, December 30, 2023
Banker and philanthropist, Naguib Kheraj, received a CBE [Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire] for his services to business and the economy. In a highly successful banking career, Kheraj spent 12 years at Barclays, serving as group finance director and vice-chairman and in various other business leadership positions.
He was also CEO of JP Morgan Cazenove, a London-based investment banking business and deputy chairman of Standard Chartered.
Kheraj is currently chairman of Rothesay Life, a specialist pensions insurer, and chairman of Petershill Partners, an asset management company.
He is also a member of the finance committee at the University of Cambridge and an independent board member of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Kheraj could have easily been awarded the CBE for his philanthropic work. He told Eastern Eye that he stopped his full-time executive career in 2011 to focus on his work for the Ismaili community.
Kheraj spends a substantial time as a senior advisor to the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and serves on the boards of various entities within the AKDN, including the Aga Khan University and the University of Central Asia, and is chairman of the AKDN Endowment Committee.
“The Agha Khan, his highness is both a religious leader and also a philanthropist and community leader. He sponsors a very big development network globally that operates in over 25 countries and it’s in some of the poorest parts of the world in Central Asia, South Asia and Africa,” Kheraj told Eastern Eye.
Kheraj spends a substantial time as a senior advisor to the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and serves on the boards of various entities within the AKDN, including the Aga Khan University and the University of Central Asia, and is chairman of the AKDN Endowment Committee.
“The Agha Khan, his highness is both a religious leader and also a philanthropist and community leader. He sponsors a very big development network globally that operates in over 25 countries and it’s in some of the poorest parts of the world in Central Asia, South Asia and Africa,” Kheraj told Eastern Eye.
“We work across many different domains, that includes rural development, sanitation, water, education, healthcare, cultural heritage preservation, and many more different fields. We have 90,000 employees in the system globally.
“I work across many of these different organisations the Aga Khan sponsors and and also work on the financial planning and financial management of that work.”
When asked where he got the desire to give back, Kheraj said: “In my family, for generations we’ve had a tradition of service.
“It’s also a huge part my faith. It’s not just my faith but all faiths speak same concepts of looking after those less fortunate than you are, sharing the benefit of your wealth with others – they are very central tenets of every single faith around the world.
“They happen to also be important tenets of the Ismaili faith and Muslim faith more generally. But I don’t think it matters whether you’re Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, every religion basically propagates the same idea of using your education and your capability for the benefit of others.”
Source: GG2.net
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