Now it’s 8 jobs George! New investment role for ex-chancellor Osborne
GEORGE Osborne has taken his eighth job after joining a major European investment firm.
The former chancellor will work for Exor, a multi-million pound holding company which controls the Fiat car empire. It is not known how much he will be paid, or how many days a year he will commit to it.
Mr Osborne, who stepped down from Parliament last year, is also editor of the Evening Standard newspaper and an adviser to investment management firm BlackRock.
He is also chairman of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a fellow at US think tank the McCain Institute, and an unpaid honorary professor of economics at the University of Manchester.
And he makes regular after- dinner
‘Unique knowledge and viewpoint’
speeches around the world for the Washington Speakers Bureau, for which he is understood to earn hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. Last year Mr Osborne, 47, took his seventh position, distinguished visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution in California.
For his one- day-a-week post at BlackRock, he earns no less than £650,000 a year and was criticised for taking the job over concerns that the Wall Street firm may have benefited from reforms to pensions rules made when he was chancellor.
Exor, which is registered in the Netherlands, is controlled by Italy’s Agnelli family and has investments in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Ferrari.
Mr Osborne will chair the firm’s ‘partners council’, which brings together highly successful business leaders representing a wide range of companies, nationalities, back- grounds and experiences. It will include senior figures from investors GG and Index Ventures, consultants BMGI and Chinese internet company Alibaba.
In a statement, he said: ‘I am delighted to have been asked to chair this impressive panel of business leaders.
‘They bring a wealth of experience from different industries and geographies. I look forward to chairing discussions that I am sure will provide useful insights and ideas for Exor and its companies.’ John Elkann, chairman and chief executive of Exor, said: ‘Our partners council offers the opportunity to exchange ideas and explore ways in which to collaborate with friends and partners. I’m delighted that as chairman, George Osborne will bring his unique knowledge and viewpoint to the council’s work.’
Before taking the job, it would have been signed off by the watchdog, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments.