Nemir Kirdar
International Council Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Experience
Nemir Kirdar is Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Investcorp, the global investment group which he founded in 1982 and which operates out of New York, London and Bahrain. He began his banking career in 1969, and following two years of internal credit training, he covered South East Asia and Japan for Allied Bank International in New York. In 1974, he joined Chase Manhattan Bank as Vice President and, between 1976 and 1981, he was posted to the Middle East to direct Chase’s activities in the Gulf. Investcorp acts as a principal and an intermediary in international investment transactions. It specializes in alternative investments and the placement of these investment opportunities with institutional and high net worth individual clients, with a focus on private equity investing, including corporate investment in North America and Western Europe, global asset management, real estate investment in the United States and technology investment in North America and Western Europe. Investcorp’s operational structure is based on a network of six business teams divided between New York, London and Bahrain, and its current staff of over 300 who are drawn from 30 nationalities includes 180 people at the level of professional and above. Mr Kirdar graduated in Economics from the University of the Pacific in California and holds an MBA from Fordham University in New York. He also completed Harvard Business School’s Senior Management Program. He has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Georgetown University, Washington D.C.; a Doctor of Laws degree from the University of the Pacific, California and an honorary Doctor of Economics degree from Richmond, the American International University in London.
