Nadhmi Auchi

Auchi graduated with a B.Sc. in Economics and Political Science from Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad, in 1967. He also worked with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, becoming Director of Planning and Development in 1969. In 1979, he founded General Mediterranean Holding SA in Luxembourg. He was also vice chair of Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University from 1996 and 2000.

He has been president of the Anglo Arab Organisation (AAO), since its founding in 2002. The AAO is a private non-profit making organisation, promoting the integration of British Arabs into mainstream British society, whilst retaining their identity. AAO's achievements include donating money to families affected by the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005, building a school in the earthquake-devastated town of Hoceima, Morocco and hosting a charity gala that collected £35,000 in donations to the benefit of the Cancer Research Unit of the Kingston Hospital in London. Auchi and AAO have also led and sponsored high-level delegations made up of Arab, British and French dignitaries, and religious and political figures pressing for the release of hostages in Baghdad, including securing the release of two French journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot and their Syrian driver in 2004.

In 2007, Auchi, in collaboration with the American University in Cairo (AUC) announced the launch of the 'Nadhmi Auchi fellowship for young Arab leaders', a fellowship dedicated to the development of the abilities of Arab youth in institution management and leadership. Auchi pays the full study and living costs of ten students from Egypt and other Arab states. The fellowship plan was announced during an annual ceremony at the Egyptian Embassy in London to celebrate AUC achievements.

Born in the Karadat Mariam area of Baghdad, Iraq, in 1937 to an Assyrian family of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Auchi attended Al Mansoor Primary School and Baghdad College High School, before going on to study at Baghdad's Mustansiriyah University. He married his wife Ibtisam in 1963, and together they have 3 daughters and 1 son, born in 1964 and 1972 respectively. In 1979, he and his family fled to London following an extortion attempt by an enforcer for Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti. Six years later, Auchi's younger brother Naseer was hanged by the Baathist regime after discovering the extent of al-Tikriti's corruption. Auchi became a British citizen in 1989 and currently resides in London.

In 2003, Auchi was convicted of fraud following his involvement in a $504 million corruption scandal centred on the French oil company Elf Aquitaine, described as "the biggest political and corporate sleaze scandal to hit a western democracy since the second world war". Auchi was given a $2.8 million fine, along with a 15-month suspended jail sentence, for his involvement in the 1991 purchase by Elf Aquitaine of various Spanish oil refineries and petrol stations, having been accused by prosecutors of funnelling $118 million of illegal commissions back to the Elf executives who had initially set up the deal.

Following the verdict, Elf (by now merged with TotalFina and renamed Total) decided to take legal action against Auchi in France; Auchi responded by suing Total for $327 million in turn, this time in the UK.