The race to determine the successor to Liz Truss as head of the Conservative Party and U.K. prime minister reached a swift conclusion on October 24 after both House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt and former PM Boris Johnson withdrew from the contest, paving the path for former chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak to become the inaugural person of color and first Hindu to guide Britain.
Rishi Sunak, (born May 12, 1980, Southampton, England), a British Conservative politician and financier who held the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer (2020–22).
Rishi Sunak Early life
Sunak was raised in a family of immigrant heritage. His grandparents emigrated from Punjab, in northwestern India, to East Africa, where his parents were born in Tanzania and Kenya, respectively. They met and wed after their families migrated in the 1960s to Southampton in southern England. Sunak’s father became a general practitioner for the National Health Service. His mother, a pharmacist, owned and managed a small pharmacy, wherein Sunak, the oldest of their three children, would ultimately keep the accounts. Later, throughout his political journey, Sunak would draw comparisons between his experiences in the family enterprise and the values he inherited from them, and those of Conservative Party symbol Margaret Thatcher, the child of a grocer.
Thanks to his parents’ sacrifices and savings to support his education, Sunak was able to attend Winchester College, an elite private institution that has produced no fewer than six chancellors of the Exchequer. In addition to being appointed “head boy” at Winchester, Sunak served as the editor of the school’s newspaper. Throughout summer breaks, he worked as a server at an Indian restaurant in Southampton. Sunak later pursued philosophy, politics, and economics (the degree commonly held by many future prime ministers) at Lincoln College, Oxford. There, he was the president of the Oxford Trading & Investment Society, which offered students avenues to learn about financial markets and international trading. While at Oxford, Sunak also completed an internship at the Conservative Party headquarters.
Upon graduating from Oxford in 2001, Sunak took a position as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, remaining with the investment banking firm until 2004. As a Fulbright scholar, he then obtained an MBA at Stanford University, where he met his future spouse, Akshata Murthy, daughter of Narayana Murthy, an Indian billionaire and cofounder of the tech giant Infosys. Returning to the U.K. in 2006, Sunak secured a role with The Children’s Investment Fund Management (TCI), the hedge fund managed by Sir Chris Hohn, who made him a partner approximately two years later. In 2009, Sunak departed TCI to join another hedge fund, Theleme Partners. That same year, he married Murthy, and together they had two daughters. Due to Sunak’s success in business and his wife’s 0.91 percent stake in Infosys, the couple began to accumulate substantial wealth, which was estimated at around £730 million ($877 million) in 2022 by The Sunday Times. (Some estimates placed Akshata Murthy’s net worth at up to £1 billion [$1.2 billion].)
Rishi Sunak Biography
| Birth | 12 May 1980 |
| Age | 42 years |
| Parents | Yashvir Sunak (Father) Usha Sunak (Mother) |
| Education | Winchester College Lincoln College, Oxford Stanford University |
| Wife | Akshata Murthy |
| Children | Two |
| Occupation | Politician Businessperson Former Investment Analyst |
| Net Worth | £3.1 billion |
Rishi Sunak Biography: Birth, Age, and Parents
Rishi Sunak was born on 12 May 1980 in Southampton, Hampshire, South East England to Indian parents Yashvir and Usha Sunak who originated in Kenya and Tanzania respectively. His father was a general practitioner while his mother was a pharmacist who managed a local pharmacy.
Sunak’s grandparents hailed from Punjab Province, British India, and immigrated to the UK in the 1960s from East Africa. Sunak is the oldest of three siblings. His brother Sanjay is a psychologist, while his sister Rakhi serves as the Head of Humanitarian, Peacebuilding, UN Funds and Programmes at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Rishi Sunak Education
He is an alumnus of Winchester College, Lincoln College, Oxford, and Stanford University. During his summer breaks, Sunak worked as a waiter at a curry house in Southampton.
Rishi Sunak’s Business Career
He completed an internship at Conservative Campaign Headquarters during his university years. From 2001 to 2004, he was employed as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank. He subsequently departed to join The Children’s Investment Fund Management (TCI) and became a partner in September 2006. In 2009, he joined another hedge fund, Theleme Partners. Additionally, he held the position of director at investment firm Catamaran Ventures, owned by his father-in-law and entrepreneur N. R. Narayana Murthy.
Rishi Sunak’s Political Career
In 2014, he was selected as the Conservative candidate for Richmond (Yorks), a constituency previously held by William Hague. This seat has been maintained by the Conservative Party for over a century. That year, he led the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Research Unit of Policy Exchange and co-authored a report on BME communities in the United Kingdom.
In the 2015 General Election, he was elected as an MP representing Richmond (Yorks). He served as a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee from 2015 to 2017.
He backed the EU referendum in 2016. Additionally, he authored a report for the Centre for Policy Studies advocating the establishment of free ports post-Brexit, and the year afterward penned a report promoting the creation of a retail bond market for SMEs.
He was re-elected as MP from the same constituency in the 2017 General Election. He held the position of Parliamentary Under-Secretary from January 2018 to July 2019. He supported PM Boris Johnson during the 2019 Conservative Party leadership race and even co-wrote an article in a British national newspaper endorsing Johnson during the campaign in June 2019.
Sunak was re-elected in the 2019 General Election and appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in July 2019, serving under Chancellor Sajid Javid. He became a member of the Privy Council on 25 July 2019.
Following a cabinet reshuffle in February 2020, Sunak was elevated to Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Rishi Sunak Wife
Rishi Sunak wed Akshata Murthy in August 2009. The couple shares two daughters. His wife is the daughter of Indian billionaire N.R. Narayana Murthy and serves as the director at Catamaran Ventures. She also runs her own fashion label and is among the wealthiest individuals in Britain.
Non-domiciled status of Rishi Sunak’s wife and green card
Rishi Sunak’s spouse Akshata Murthy holds non-domiciled status, indicating that she is not obligated to pay taxes on income earned abroad while residing in the United Kingdom. Murthy pays approximately £30,000 to maintain this status, which further allows her to evade paying an estimated £20 million in UK taxes.
Following the media uproar surrounding this issue during Rishi Sunak’s announcement to run for Prime Minister, Akshata Murthy declared on April 8, 2022, her intention to pay UK taxes on her global income. She further stated that she did not wish this to become a distraction from her husband’s aspirations.
It was reported that Rishi Sunak retained the U.S. Permanent Resident Card he obtained in the 2000s until 2021, including for 18 months after he was Chancellor, which necessitated filing U.S. tax returns.
