Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is an international businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. He has been a successful entrepreneur for 50 years.
His business career began when he was in his twenties. In 1977 he became Chairman of Hawley Group plc and within less than a decade transformed it from near collapse into a leading international business services company employing over 100,000 people. Following a US merger in 1988, Hawley was re-branded ADT. In 1997, he negotiated the sale of ADT to Tyco International for $6.7 billion (£3.7 billion).
His business interests include investments in Waterloo Investment Holdings Limited (an international company based in the Caribbean and Central America), Rendeavour (utilities and urban management operator in Africa), Impellam Group plc (global workforce and specialist recruitment), Jaywing plc (marketing and data science), Merit Group plc (data and intelligence business), Total Politics (media, events and training focused on politics, government and public policy), Marlowe plc (providing business-critical services and software which assure safety and regulatory compliance) and Gusbourne plc (wine producer).