SO JUST HOW MUCH DOES HE RAKE IN?
WHO are the clients willing to fork out huge sums for Tony Blair’s services? We asked for a list, but it is confidential. From public sources, however, we can name them as including:
Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, the luxury handbag, cognac and champagne company, which once employed Euan Blair.
Zurich Insurance (thought to bring in £500,000 a year).
J. P. Morgan (believed to bring in £2 million a year).
The Emir of Kuwait (thought to have paid £ 27 million f or consultancy advice).
The Abu Dhabi government (which is believed to bring in £1 million a year).
The Government of Kazakhstan (paying £8 million a year for economic and governance advice, according to Kazakh sources).
UI Energy, a Korean oil firm, for which Blair admitted he had done consultancy work, but declined to publish details, despite being pressed to do so by watchdog the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments.
The International Sanitary Supply Association (£50,000 for addressing a conference).
Wataniya, the Palestinian phone company owned by Qtel, a client of J. P. Morgan.
Blair has also made substantial sums from speeches in China and advises the Mongolian government under a two-year consultancy agreement.
Some of the money is said to be routed towards his charitable activities. The charities, in particular, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, also have secret donors.
He has 200 employees on his staff payroll — a figure he’s set his sights on growing to 500.
Sources close to him have told us that the model for his growing organisation i s the equally secretive U.S. global management consultancy McKinsey.
‘There was a great New Labour love affair with McKinsey when Blair was prime minister,’ says one senior banking source.
‘There are lot of McKinsey alumni on the government advisory side of Blair’s business and always have been.’
Tony Blair Associates’ UK headquarters — which is also the base f or his three directors of Windrush Ventures — employs 35 people on an average salary of £86,000 a year, almost £1 million more than last year.
The company’s highest paid director receives £273,000 — up from £200,000 the previous year.
This director is thought to be Catherine Rimmer, Mr Blair’s chief of staff and a former Downing Street aide, or David Lyon, a former Barclays investment banker, who was recruited by Blair in 2012 to ‘grow and develop’ his business activities.
The other two directors share £307,000 between them — nearly double the £175,000 paid in 2012.
According to payment schedules we have seen, up until 2012, Blair’s companies — that’s not himself or his family — generated £40.7 million.
If you add figures up to 2013, this i ncreased by another £13 million, taking the total to nearly £54 million.
What is clear from these figures is that Blair’s financial empire is growing by the day and the money he is making — whether for his charities or his family — continues to rise.