A mixed race man who grew up on a council estate in Leicester to amass a fortune that could be almost £200m.
Sir Damon Buffini was a founding partner of Permira, and was Chairman and Managing Partner from 1997–2010. Damon is the Chair of the National Theatre and a Governor of the Wellcome Trust, a global charity dedicated to improving global health and wellbeing.
Damon is also Chair of the Royal Anniversary Trust and was recently appointed by Her Majesty’s Treasury to Chair the Patient Capital Review. He is also Senior Independent Non-Executive Director at the European Tour.
Damon was educated at the Gateway Grammar School, Leicester, St John’s College, Cambridge, where he read Law and at Harvard Business School, where he gained an MBA. Damon was knighted in 2016 for philanthropic and voluntary services.
1962
Leicester, UK
The son of an African American serviceman and a British woman
1981 – he successfully applied for a place to read Law at St John’s College Cambridge
1988 – he joined Schroders leveraged buyout team, known then as Schroder Ventures Europe.
1992 – Buffini became a Partner in the business
1999 – promoted to Managing Partner of the UK business
2004 – Buffini took home £3.2 million plus bonuses
2005 – established The Buffini Chao Foundation with his wife Lady Buffini
2007 – Buffini was ranked first in the men’s Top 10 of the Powerlist
2012 – Buffini was appointed to the Board of Governors at The Wellcome Trust
2016 – knighted in the Birthday Honours for voluntary and charitable services
2020 – the UK Government announced Buffini as chair of the Culture Recovery Board
He was born to Maureen Buffini in May 1962 in Leicester. His father was Jonathan Taylor, a British based American serviceman with whom Maureen had a brief relationship.
His father’s name is not recorded on his birth certificate and friends say he was never part of the family. His mother was determined to give her son the best start in life
A talented athlete, Buffini also excelled academically and won a place at Gateway, a Leicester boys’ grammar school specialising in engineering and industrial drawing.
His economics teacher Steve Martin recalls his talented pupil, saying that he was always the one prepared to challenge conventional ideas.
“He was the kind of character who would spark things off. We were just moving into the era of Thatcher, and Damon was challenging traditional Keynesian ideas. `It doesn’t work,’ he would say. He was always ready to test things out.
Pushing him hard, his mother took a keen interest in his academic performance and if we said Damon was doing well, she would ask how he could do better.”
Buffini passed his exams with flying colours, getting As in A-level English and History and an A-star in Economics. Having visited Cambridge with the school football team, in 1981 he successfully applied for a place to read Law at St John’s College
There, recalls fellow student Toby Wyles, he hung out with the ‘soccer crowd’ while at the same time leaving no one in doubt of his fierce ambition to make a success of his life.
Damon was educated at the Gateway Grammar School, Leicester, St John’s College, Cambridge, where he read Law and at Harvard Business School, where he gained an MBA. Damon was knighted in 2016 for philanthropic and voluntary services.
Buffini worked for LEK Consulting and under the firm’s scholarship scheme undertook an MBA from Harvard Business School. On return to the UK he joined Imperial Group working as a Management Consultant, before being recruited by Jon Moulton (now head of rival firm Better Capital) in 1988 to join Schroders leveraged buyout team, known then as Schroder Ventures Europe.
Buffini became a Partner in 1992, and was promoted to Managing Partner of the UK business in 1999, and Managing Partner in 2000, just before he led a management buyout group and renamed the firm Permira. Buffini took home £3.2 million plus bonuses in 2004.
Buffini was also a non-executive board member of SVG Capital plc and chairman and co-founder of the Social Business Trust.
Buffini established The Buffini Chao Foundation with his wife Lady Buffini in 2005.
He is a main Board Member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a Trustee of the Royal Anniversary Trust, which administers The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education.
In September 2012 Buffini was appointed to the Board of Governors at The Wellcome Trust.
In July 2020, the UK Government announced Buffini as Chair of the Culture Recovery Board, an administrative body tasked with managing the £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund intended to protect UK arts and heritage assets during the Covid-19 crisis.
Buffini was ranked first in the men’s Top 10 of the 2007 Powerlist, a publication ranking the most influential Black Britons. Buffini’s influence has also been recognised in business, having ranked number three by the Times Power 100 for people who hold sway over British Business. Boasting power and influence, together with a personal fortune of between £100m and £200m, Buffini was appointed to then Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s business advisory panel.
Buffini was knighted in the 2016 Birthday Honours for voluntary and charitable services.
Married to a solicitor, the couple have three children and a family home in Weybridge as well as a city flat in Wandsworth. Buffini plays tennis and golf, football for a local amateur side, and supports Arsenal.
King of the private equity bounty hunters – but how did he do it? | Daily Mail Online
About Us – Buffini Chao Foundation
The real black power list of 100 leading role models | Media | The Guardian
SIR DAMON BUFFINI: On The Difference SBT Can Make To A Social Enterprise (2017) – YouTube
Sir Damon Buffini | CASE
Damon Buffini – Wikipedia
Sir Damon Buffini | Arts Council England
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