Business Interests

Business interests

Mighty Loud EntertainmentDupree started Mighty Loud Entertainment, which is a record label and artist management company. Through Mighty Loud, Dupree is the General Manager of Kiefer Sutherland's label Ironworks and also runs an imprint label as part of the Universal Music system. Mighty Loud Entertainment manages artists such as Nigel Dupree Band, Jackyl, Wayland, and Babi Mac. Jesse James SpiritsIn 2010, Jesse James Dupree launched the "Jesse James Spirits" line of alcoholic beverage products, whose brands include the no "Jesse James America's Outlaw" brands of whole wheat unfiltered beer (no longer produced) and straight bourbon whiskey. Flavored bourbons (honey flavored and spiced) were introduced to the product line soon afterward.

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Other business interests

Lebedev co-owns The Grapes, a riverside pub in Limehouse, London, with Sir Ian McKellen and Sean Mathias. Lebedev purchased the historic Chteau Gtsch in Lucerne, Switzerland in 2012, and he turned it into a luxury hotel-restaurant. Lebedev is chairman and host of the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. He also supports the Moscow Art Theatre.

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Current business interests

Koppers operates facilities in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Australia and China. The coal tar processor Cindu Chemicals in the Netherlands was acquired in 2010. Koppers sources coal tar from around the world for further processing by distillation into carbon chemicals.

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Business Interests

Green House Promoters Private Limited was floated months after A. Raja became a Union minister in 1999. The real estate company soon flourished, acquiring huge tracts of land in the state's small towns and selling it at a huge premium. It was alleged that Batcha forcibly acquired large tracts of land from the poor at cheap rates and sold it to Madras Rubber Factory for a huge sum. The Green House Promoters, starting as a nondescript company with an equity base of Rs 100,000 in 2004, grew to a company of over Rs 6 billion in revenue within a short time. The CBI is investigating the rapid growth of the company. The company also indirectly benefited from the 2G spectrum case by acquiring shares of a company that, in turn, became a partner in Shahid Balwa's Swan Telecom. Swan Telecom was one of the beneficiaries of the first-come-first-served policy, which came from the then minister for Telecom in India.

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Career and business interests

He started his career in India and then subsequently worked in Singapore, Australia and South East Asian countries. He migrated to Canada in late 1994 and joined Bell Canada, later becoming a General Manager. After a career at Bell, he co-founded (with four other partners) a software company, Isopia Inc. Isopia was a Canadian success story and their company was acquired by Sun Microsystems for over $100 million (combination of cash & stock). After his work at Isopia, Aditya started Osellus Inc, another software firm with offices in Toronto and Bangkok, and diversified his portfolio through acquisition of several businesses including a business from Allan Candy/Cadbury Adams Canada. He renamed the confectionery manufacturing business, to Karma Candy owing to his belief in the concept of Karma. After this acquisition, Aditya helped save more than 150 jobs who were to be laid-off owing to the imminent closure of one of the oldest confectionery factories in Canada. From 2013-2016, Aditya was the CEO of the Euclid Infotech (Tendersinfo.com). dgMarket International Inc - International Tenders & E-ProcurementIn January 2017, Jha acquired dgMarket International Inc from Development Gateway. dgMarket is the oldest and one of the largest portal for tenders and consulting opportunities worldwide, with solicitations from national governments and international donor agencies. It was created in 2001, as a part of Development Gateway (DG) at the initiative of the World Bank in an effort to enhancing the reach, transparency, and effectiveness of International procurement in economic improvement round the arena. dgMarket integrates about 1 million procurement notices per year, covering about $1 trillion tender opportunities.

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Hotels and other business interests

The GER owned five hotels at the end of their existence in 1922. The Great Eastern HotelThe Great Eastern Hotel was located at Liverpool Street Railway station opened in May 1884 and enlarged in 1901. This was the biggest hotel on the system. The large function room known as the Hamilton Hall was restored in the 1990s and re-opened as a pub. The hotel is still open today. The Felix HotelThe Felix Hotel located in Felixstowe was purchased by the GER in the 1920s. Built by the local Tollemache family (of brewing fame) in 1902, the hotel was lavishly equipped with tennis courts, winter gardens, a putting course, croquet lawns and a squash court. Hugely popular when Felixstowe was a resort by the 1930s it was in decline and sold to Fisons in 1952. Visitors included Kaiser Wilhelm in 1891 and in later post GER days, Wallis Simpson and Fred Perry. In the 1980s the building - then named Harvest House - was converted to apartments. The Harwich HotelThis was opened in 1865 and, although well-equipped and furnished, struggled to make a profit (especially after Parkeston Quay opened). The GER tried to sell it in early 1907 but it failed to meet its reserve price so closed in July 1907. THE GER refurbished the hotel and re-opened it in 1912 but when the First World War started in 1914 it became a naval hospital. After the war the GER opened the hotel again, but it closed in 1923. It was later used as council offices. The Parkeston Quay HotelThis hotel was opened in 1883 when the continental steamer services were transferred from Harwich. It had 26 rooms. It was part of the station buildings - later used as shipping agent's offices. Sandringham HotelThe Sandringham Hotel at Hunstanton was opened on 1 May 1876 and built by the Lynn and Hunstanton Railway. It was not acquired by the GER until 1 July 1890 when an act of parliament incorporated the Hunstanton and West Norfolk Railway. The GER expanded the premises in the early 1900s with rooms numbering over 100. The hotel prospered until the Second World War where it first housed the LNER Accounts department and was then requisitioned by the War department and used by various British and Canadian regiments during the rest of the war. It was bought by Hunstanton Urban District Council in 1950 and used as offices and a library until 1959 when the property was converted into flats. The building was demolished in 1967. [Note LaundryThe GER built a laundry in 1888 in Colchester that supplied the hotels with bed linen, tablecloths etc. At one point it employed 70 people. FarmingDuring 1916 the GER ran a poultry demonstration trains throughout East Anglia often visiting towns on market day. The purpose of this train was to encourage self-sufficiency during the food shortages of the First World War. Encouraged by the reception this train got, the GER purchased Dodnash Priory Farm in Bentley, Suffolk as a poultry demonstration farm. The hen houses were built at Stratford Works and had individual works numbers. By 1920 the farm was producing 40,000 eggs per month for the GER as well as chickens, turkeys, fruit and vegetables for the GER hotels, restaurants, dining cars and buffets. Another establishment at Chigwell has been doing this for some years previously. Dodnash Priory also served as a rest home for GER horses. A siding about three quarters of a mile south of Bentley railway station on the down side served the farm. The farm survived into LNER days being sold in 1927 when the farmer reached 70 and retired. The siding had been removed in May 1925.