Chaim "Poju" Zabludowicz (born 6 April 1953), owner of the Lichtenstein-registered Tamares investment group, is a Finnish business magnate and philanthropist based in London.^[2][3] The Sunday Times Rich List 2013 of the richest people in the United Kingdom ranked him 48th in the country and 2nd in the north-east, with a personal net worth of £1,500 million.^[4]

Early life [edit]

Zabludowicz was born in Helsinki and raised in Tampere, where he attended Svenska Samskolan i Tammerfors, the Swedish-speaking school in the city. He graduated with a degree in Economics and Political Science from Tel Aviv University and later worked at BFG Bank AG in Frankfurt.^[5] He is married to British-born Anita Zabludowicz.^[6] His father, Shlomo Zabludowicz, built the family business around Soltam, an Israeli defence contractor.^[7]

Career ventures [edit]

Zabludowicz has headed Tamares since 1990. Through Tamares, he invests in a number of different private^[8] and public^[9] companies, and in real estate properties.^[10]

Zabludowicz has been the chairman of the advisory board of Synova Capital since 2007, a £100 million private equity fund which invests in mid-market UK companies.^[11] He is the chairman of the board of Tamares Telecom, a privately held service provider that operates and markets communications services based on a new internationally deployed fiber-optic network. He has been on the board of directors of Outotec since March 2012, a company that provides technologies and services for the metal and mineral processing industries.^[12] He also served as a member of a number of boards, including the European advisory board of Citigroup, the board of directors of GEMS (an Asia Pacific private equity fund), Auctor Capital Partners (a corporate finance and advisory house for hedge funds)^[13] and Stratos Ventures (an early stage venture capital firm with a focus on information and communication technology sectors).^[14]

Zabludowicz owns 40% of the land in downtown Las Vegas.^[15] He owns a part of the Finnish ice hockey team Tappara.^[16]

Activism [edit]

Zabludowicz is the founder and chairman of BICOM, the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, an organization which lobbies the UK government on behalf of Israel. He is reported to have given the pressure group more than $1.8 million in three years.^[17] He is also a member of the Advisory Boards of CST (Community Security Trust) and UJIA (United Jewish Israel Appeal).

The Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases opened in Sheba Medical Center through Poju and Anita Zabludowicz's donations. The center centralizes under one roof all aspects of autoimmune research and treatment, and brings together physicians and researchers from multidisciplinary fields such as internal medicine, clinical immunology, autoimmunity, rheumatology, ophthalmology, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology.^[18]

Poju and Anita have been involved in a large number of activities, from sponsoring of exhibitions and art fairs, to organizing various fundraising events.^[19]

Zabludowicz has been a patron of the Finnish British Chamber of Commerce since 2011.

Art collection [edit]

For 15 years, Poju and Anita have been accumulating a 500-artist, 5,000-piece collection of artwork.^[20] They exhibit their private art collection at three different locations, one of them being 176, a gallery in a former 19th-century Methodist chapel in Chalk Farm, north London.^[21] Inaugurated in 2007, the Zabludowicz Collection’s London project space presents exhibitions of collection works and new commissions by artists linked to the collection.^[22] One sculpture in the collection, a miniature statue of Jesus with an erection, surrounded by 50 other sculptures also with erections, has been considered "grotesquely offensive" by some Christians, one of whom has said she will bring a private prosecution against the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, which has exhibited the statue.^[23]

1500 Broadway houses a selection of works from the Zabludowicz Collection. The programme at 1500 consists of temporary exhibitions and events whilst the lobby is open to the public during office hours.^[24]

Across three locations on Sarvisalo, an island in Loviisa, Finland, the Zabludowicz Collection has initiated an international residency programme for invited artists. The residency programme offers an environment for the production of art.^[25]

Poju and Anita appear in ArtReview's Power 100 lists for 2006-2012 which assess those most powerful in the art world. In 2012, they were listed at number 87.^[26] They have collected Young British Artists including works by Tracy Emin. Zabludowicz serves as the founder and trustee of the Zabludowicz Collection since 1994, as well as being a patron of the Tate Modern in London since 1999 and Kiasma in Helsinki since 2009.^[27]

Plans to build an art museum in Las Vegas have been put on hold.^[28]

Controversy [edit]

According to The Jewish Chronicle, Zabludowicz hosted secret talks at his London home in March 2011 between Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.^[29]

Zabludowicz claimed in October 2011 that he was tricked into funding the lavish lifestyle and globetrotting of former UK Defence Secretary Liam Fox and Fox's adviser Adam Werritty^[30] and was said to be furious at suggestions that he had received any benefit or access from the payments.^[31]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Tamares Group
• Sunday Times Rich List 2009
• Estates Gazette Rich List 2010
• Estates Gazette Rich List 2011
• Estates Gazette Rich List 2012
• Chaim Zabludowicz on Businessweek
• Poju Zabludowicz on Businessweek