Lord Bilimoria CBE DL

Honorary graduates 2014-15

Lord Bilimoria CBE DL (LLD)

Tuesday 15 July 3:00pm

Karan Bilimoria is the founder of Cobra Beer, Chairman of the Cobra Beer Partnership Limited, a joint venture with Molson Coors, and Chairman of Molson Coors Cobra India.

Lord Bilimoria is the Founding Chairman of the UK India Business Council, a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London, a former Chancellor of Thames Valley University (now the University of West London); he was the youngest University Chancellor in the UK when appointed. 

Karan is Senior Non-Executive Director of the Booker Group PLC. In addition, he is one of the first two visiting entrepreneurs at the University of Cambridge and a founding member of the Prime Minister of India’s Global Advisory Council.

In 2006, Karan was appointed the Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea, making him the first ever Zoroastrian Parsi to sit in the House of Lords. In 2013, he established the Zoroastrian All-Party Parliamentary Group to increase awareness of this ancient religion in Westminster. In 2008 he was awarded the Pravasi Bharti Samman by the President of India.

Karan attended seven schools, including Hyderabad Public School and Hebron School, Ooty. He graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce Honours degree from Osmania University in Hyderabad. He then moved to London on a scholarship and received a diploma in accounting from the London Metropolitan University. He later graduated in law from the University of Cambridge as a student of Sidney Sussex College in 1988.

He is an honorary fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and a Member of the Advisory Board of the Judge Business School, Cambridge University. He is also an alumnus through executive education of the Cranfield School of Management, the London Business School and the Harvard Business School.

In 1993 he married Lynne Heather Walker, a South African national. They have four children and live in London.