Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis (born 27 January 1959) is a director of the South African retailer Foschini Ltd. He is also the founder of the Israeli biotech company ProChon Biotech Limited.ISD Board of Trustees, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, accessed 16 October 2011.
==The Lewis Family and Business Background==
Michael Lewis is the son of the Stanley and Zea Lewis (née Theadora). His paternal grandfather, the Latvian-born Meyer Lewis, established a furniture company in Cape 
Town in 1934 which in 1946 was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.Lewis Group, > Overview > History. Annual Report 2010 http://www.lewisgroup.co.za/investor/financials/ar/ar2010/overview/history.asp For several decades Michael Lewis’s late father, Stanley Lewis, controlled the South African clothing retailer Foschini and the Israeli travel company Paltours (which was originally a subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial TrustHaim Shapiro, ‘Tourist firm that goes with the Zionist flow’, Jerusalem Post, 18 April 1995, p.8.).
Stanley Lewis moved from Cape Town to London in 1986Obituary: Stanley Lewis, Jewish Chronicle, 18 December 2009, p.30. where he established the family’s investment vehicle Oceana Investment Corporation, probably best known in the UK for its attempted takeover of the Etam clothing chain in 1992.‘South African Family Grabs A Secret Stake in Rejuvenated British Retailer’, Sunday Business, 18 March 2001. Michael Lewis joined Oceana Investment Corporation in 1987 having worked as a fund manager in Edinburgh and LondonTrialpha Oceana Concentrated Opportunities Fund Report and Consolidated Financial Statements for the period 16 February 2007 to 31 March 2008, p.11. and from that point jointly managed the family’s business interests with his father.
Today the Lewis family’s substantial wealth, which is held via trusts and offshore companies, is 
managed by Michael Lewis and his business associate David Sable, a fellow South African. Lewis 
and Sable run a London based investment advisory firm, Oceana Investment Partners, which 
manages the approximately £8 million of assets held by the family’s UK holdings company Oceana 
Investment Corporation as well as approximately £38 million worth of assets held by the Jersey 
incorporated Oceana Concentrated Opportunities Fund Ltd. The Jersey Fund has significant 
stakes in the African furniture company, the Lewis Group (founded by Lewis’s grandfather), the 
UK property companies Max Property Group plc and Berkeley Group Holdings plc, and the UK 
merchant bank United Trust Bank, where Michael Lewis serves as a director.Oceana Concentrated Opportunities Fund Ltd Accounts made up to 31 March 2011, p.8. The Fund has also committed £5.9 million to Synova Capital, a private equity fund in which Poju Zabludowicz is the main investor.Oceana Concentrated Opportunities Fund Ltd Accounts made up to 31 March 2011, p.11.
The Oceana Concentrated Opportunities Fund formerly invested approximately a third of its funds in 
the pro-Israel German media company Axel Springer, where Michael Lewis is still a member of the Supervisory Board.Axel Springer, Supervisory Board, http://www.axelspringer.de/en/artikel/Supervisory-Board_85415.html [Accessed 10 August 2012] The shares were purchased from Friede Springer, the widow of the company’s founder who is friends with Michael Lewis and with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. ‘Axel Springer stake buyer is Liam Fox pal’, Evening Standard, 3 March 2006.
The Lewis family has supported other pro-Israel organisations in the UK in addition to BICOM. The family’s charitable foundation, the Stanley & Zea Lewis Family Foundation, donated a total of £193,239 to the United Jewish Israel Appeal between April 2009 and March 2011Stanley & Zea Lewis Family Foundation Financial Statements Year Ended 31 March 2010; Stanley & Zea Lewis Family Foundation Financial Statements Year Ended 31 March 2011 and in 2011 
pledged £3 million to the University of Oxford to fund the appointment of a Professor of Israel Studies.Lewis Group, > Overview > History. Annual Report 2010. Michael Lewis, who is a trustee of the family foundation, was a director of the United Jewish Israel Appeal from September 2001 to October 2007.
Michael Lewis is also chairman of the London-based think tank, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), having joined as a trustee in 2005.The Trialogue Educational Trust Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2005. The ISD was founded by its President, the veteran 
Zionist Lord Weidenfeld. It grew out of the Club of Three, an elite policy forum bringing together 
powerful figures from business and politics in France, Germany and the UK. The Institute jointly 
organises an annual event called the European-Israeli Dialogue with Axel Springer, the Jerusalem Foundation and the Portland Trust. It also sponsors research on ‘extremism’ and radicalisation’.Institute for Strategic Dialogue ‘Counter-Extremism’, http://www.strategicdialogue.org/programmes/counter-extremism/
==BICOM - donor and former vice chair==
Michael Lewis served as a director of BICOM between September 2006 and December 2007. During his time he was reportedly the organisation's vice-chairman and is known to have donated a total of £25,000. BICOM Accounts made up to 31 December 2007, p.4. He has said that he has had no involvement in BICOM since 2007, but has confirmed he remains a donor.See note accompanying Rupert Neate, ‘Liam Fox took five MPs to Washington with donor’s money’, The Guardian, 13 October 2011.
==Liam Fox and Atlantic Bridge==
In October 2005, Defence Secretary Liam Fox flew to the United States with five newly elected MPs - Mark Harper, John Penrose, Brooks Newmark, Adam Holloway and Philip Dunne. In the register of members interests, all the MPs said their flights and accomodation had been paid for using a donation from Michael Lewis.Rupert Neate, Liam Fox took five MPs to Washington with donor's money, guardian.co.uk, 13 October 2011. 
In a clarification in October 2011 The Guardian said it had incorrectly stated that Lewis had arranged a trip in 2009 to a security seminar in Israel for Liam Fox's friend Adam Werritty. "Mr Lewis... remains a donor to Bicom but has never had involvement in Mr Werritty's travel arrangements".Liam Doward, Liam Fox's Atlantic Bridge linked top Tories and Tea Party activists, guardian.co.uk, 15 October 2011, amended 19 October 2011
Lewis has donated £13,832 to Fox's defunct Atlantic Bridge charity.Rupert Neate, Liam Fox took five MPs to Washington with donor's money, guardian.co.uk, 13 October 2011
==Affiliations==
*Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre former deputy chairman.Liam Doward, Liam Fox's Atlantic Bridge linked top Tories and Tea Party activists, guardian.co.uk, 15 October 2011.
*Institute for Strategic Dialogue - ChairmanISD Board of Trustees, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, accessed 16 October 2011.
*United Trust Bank Limited - director
*Axel Springer AG - Supervisory board memberISD Board of Trustees, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, accessed 16 October 2011.
*Weidenfeld Scholarships and Leadership Programme -co-chairISD Board of Trustees, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, accessed 16 October 2011.
*Atlantic Bridge - former donorLiam Doward, Liam Fox's Atlantic Bridge linked top Tories and Tea Party activists, guardian.co.uk, 15 October 2011.
*Stanley and Zea Lewis Family Foundation - Trustee
==Connections==
*Liam Fox - 2005 Conservative leadership campaign donorLiam Doward, Liam Fox's Atlantic Bridge linked top Tories and Tea Party activists, guardian.co.uk, 15 October 2011.
==External resources==
*Tim Shipman, Christian Gysin and Ian Drury, Tycoons who funded Fox's friend: Right-wing donors paid the bills for pair's globetrotting, dailymail.co.uk, 13 October 2011.
==Notes==
Lewis, MichaelLewis, MichaelLewis, Michael