Euan Blair

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Euan Blair

MBE
Euan (left) and Cherie Blair in 2007
Born
Euan Anthony Blair

(1984-01-19) 19 January 1984 (age 40)
London, England
Alma mater
Spouse
Suzanne Ashman
​
(m. 2013)​
Parents
Relatives

Euan Anthony Blair MBE (born 19 January 1984) is an English businessman who is the co-founder and chief executive of the apprenticeships company Multiverse. He is the eldest son of the former British prime minister Sir Tony Blair and lawyer Cherie Blair.

Early life

Blair was born on 19 January 1984 and was named Euan after two people: the artist Euan Uglow and a school friend of Tony Blair.[1]

Education

Blair was educated at St Joan of Arc Roman Catholic Primary School[2] and the London Oratory School, a highly regarded Roman Catholic grant-aided school in Fulham, London. At the Oratory he was appointed one of the four deputy head pupils for his final year at the school.[3]

Blair graduated with a B.A. in ancient history from the University of Bristol in 2005, having attained a 2:1 (upper second class) honours degree.[4]

Blair spent three months as an unpaid intern with the Republican David Dreier and Republican Party staff of the Rules Committee of the United States House of Representatives.[5] He then worked in the office of the "Blue Dog" Democrat Jane Harman. Blair cut short his internship with Harman in May 2006 after a fortnight; a statement from Harman's office cited Blair's graduate school plans,[6] and offers from Harvard's Kennedy School and Yale.[7]

In early 2006, Blair had two weeks of work experience with the London public relations company Finsbury Limited.[8] In 2008, he graduated from Yale University's MacMillan Center with an M.A. in international relations. He accepted this place after being awarded a £50,000 ($100,000) scholarship.[9]

Media coverage

When the Millennium Dome was in the planning stages, Tony Blair proposed that the Dome must pass the "Euan test" and satisfy what his 13-year-old would want on a day out.[10]

The incident for which Blair first attracted significant attention was in 2000 when, aged 16, he was found by police intoxicated in Leicester Square, having spent the night with friends celebrating the completion of his GCSE exams.[11] He apologised for the incident, and was neither prosecuted nor formally cautioned.[11][12]

In 2001, Blair applied to Trinity College, Oxford. His parents made a formal complaint to the Press Complaints Commission that media reports represented an intrusion, and the complaint was upheld. He later took a place at the University of Bristol instead.[13]

In 2006, it was reported in The Sunday Times that Blair had worked as a runner for the film V for Vendetta when it was filmed around the Palace of Westminster in summer 2005.[14] The Conservative MP David Davies and the magazine Private Eye suggested that Blair's involvement was a contributing factor to the granting of access to the location for filming.[15] However, Nick Daubeny, the location manager for the film, denied that Blair's involvement had helped in any way, saying that Blair had been offered the job after they had worked together during the filming of Band of Brothers in 2001.

Apprenticeships company

In 2016 Blair and his friend Sophie Adelman jointly founded the company WhiteHat which provides apprenticeships for school leavers.[16] WhiteHat was rebranded to Multiverse in 2021.[17] The EdTech start-up provides apprenticeships in the UK and USA, specialising in data and technology. Multiverse delivers nine apprenticeship programmes that range from Level 3 (the equivalent of three A-Levels) to Level 6 (the equivalent of a university degree). The company was judged to be "Outstanding" in its most recent (July 2021) inspection by Ofsted.[18]

In 2018, the company announced a $4 million seed round led by the Silicon Valley investor Lightspeed Venture Partners. In September 2021, Multiverse raised $130 million in a Series C raise at a valuation of $875 million.[19] In June 2022, Multiverse raised $220 million in a Series D raise at a valuation of $1.7 billion.[20]

In 2023 the company had sustained a loss every year, reporting a loss of £10.9 million in the year to 31 March 2021, on revenues of £10.1 million.[21] In June 2022 the company was valued at £1.4bn in a fundraising round driven by US venture capital firms, valuing Blair's stake in the company at £420m. Losses rose to £40.5m on revenue of £45.2m for the financial year ending in March 2023.[22]

Blair was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to education.[23][24]

Personal life

Blair was baptised and brought up as Roman Catholic.[25]

In 2005, Blair was romantically linked to Luciana Berger by the press.[26] Following such reports, Blair sent a fax from Labour party headquarters to national newspapers saying, "I want to make it clear that Luciana Berger is not, and has never been, my girlfriend."[27]

In 2013, Blair married his long-term girlfriend Suzanne Ashman at All Saints' Church, Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire.[28]

References

  1. ^ Blair, Cherie (12 May 2008). "The night I hated Tony". The Times. London. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  2. ^ Hackett, Geraldine (9 December 1994). "Blairs put Labour in opt-out spotlight". Times Educational Supplement. Retrieved 4 December 2009.[dead link]
  3. ^ "Blair's son is to be deputy head boy". BBC News. 31 May 2001. Retrieved 4 December 2009.
    - Woodward, Will (1 June 2001). "Euan Blair elected deputy head boy". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 December 2009.
  4. ^ "Blairs watch eldest son graduate". BBC News. 18 July 2005.
    - Pierce, Andrew; Hurst, Greg (26 August 2006). "Euan Blair's holiday ends in pain and a hospital bed". The Times. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  5. ^ Argetsinger, Amy; Roberts, Roxanne (24 February 2006). "Euan Blair: A Proper English Gentleman". The Washington Post. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
  6. ^ Mangino, Andrew (1 June 2006). "University confirms Blair's admission". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  7. ^ Argetsinger, Amy; Roberts, Roxanne (19 May 2006). "Euan Blair, Burning Bridges in D.C.?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
  8. ^ Barnett, Antony; Doward, Jamie (17 September 2006). "The PR tycoon, a private dinner and PM's meeting with Euro lobby group". The Observer. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
    - Kellaway, Lucy (23 January 2006). "Why work experience doesn't pay". The Financial Times. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  9. ^ Patterson, Christina (30 May 2006). "No wonder God's been keeping a low profile". The Independent. London. Retrieved 7 November 2008.
    - Johnson, Rachel (23 May 2006). "It's not how Euan got his scholarship, but why". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  10. ^ Storer, Jackie (18 January 2006). "Blairs' family life under spotlight". BBC News. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  11. ^ a b "Blair's son 'drunk and incapable'". BBC News. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  12. ^ "Final warning for Blair's son". BBC News. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  13. ^ Sparrow, Andrew; Savill, Richard (24 August 2002). "Euan Blair misses out on place at Oxford". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 17 February 2009.
  14. ^ Taher, Abul (1 January 2006). "Euan Blair helps to blow up parliament". The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  15. ^ Private Eye, issue 1153, 3 March 2006
  16. ^ Neate, Rupert (1 June 2022). "Euan Blair: from PM's son to £700m business and an MBE". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  17. ^ "UK's WhiteHat rebrands as Multiverse, raises $44M to build tech apprenticeships in the US". TechCrunch. 19 January 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  18. ^ "Inspection of Multiverse Group Limited". Ofsted. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  19. ^ "Multiverse, the tech-focused apprenticeship startup, nabs $130M at an $875M valuation". TechCrunch. 28 September 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  20. ^ "Apprenticeship Startup Multiverse Raises $220 Million To Solve Tech's Talent Shortage". Forbes. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
  21. ^ Prescott, Katie. "Euan Blair's apprenticeship firm Multiverse valued at £1.4bn". The Times. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
    - "Tony Blair's son Euan on way to billionaire status as Multiverse firm worth £1.35bn". Evening Standard. 9 June 2022. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  22. ^ Neate, Rupert (28 November 2023). "Euan Blair's apprenticeship firm Multiverse reports near-tripling of losses". The Guardian.
  23. ^ Davies, Caroline (1 June 2022). "Boris Johnson critic Jeremy Wright knighted in birthday honours". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  24. ^ "No. 63714". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 June 2022. p. B17.
  25. ^ Gledhill, Ruth. "Tony Blair could become Roman Catholic in time to celebrate Christmas Mass". The Times. Archived from the original on 8 October 2011. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
    - Caldwell, Simon (24 December 2007). "Ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair received into Catholic Church". Catholic News Service. Archived from the original on 25 December 2007. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  26. ^ Cassidy, Sarah (27 March 2010). "Girlfriend of Euan Blair quits NUS in racism row". The Independent. London. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
  27. ^ Milmo, Cahal (21 April 2005). "The NUS officer, the PM's son, and a love affair that never was". The Independent. London. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
  28. ^ "Tony Blair's son Euan weds girlfriend Suzanne Ashman". BBC News. 14 September 2013. Retrieved 2 June 2022.

External links


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