Jewish Care hosts 35th Topland Group Business Lunch featuring CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, Head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign and author, Bill Browder, interviewed by Lord Daniel Finkelstein OBE. This year’s award winner is Holocaust survivor, Mala Tribich MBE.
More than 900 people gathered at Grosvenor House yesterday for Jewish Care’s Topland Group Business Lunch, which raised over £400,000 to support our vital services.
The lunch, in its 14th year of partnership with the Topland Group, featured guest speaker, Bill Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, Head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign and Author of Red Notice and Freezing Order, interviewed by former Executive Editor, Chief Leader Writer, and current columnist for The Times newspaper, Lord Daniel Finkelstein OBE.
Bill Browder was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005, when he was denied entry to the country and declared “a threat to national security” for exposing corruption in Russian state-owned companies. In 2008, Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, uncovered a massive fraud committed by Russian government officials that involved the theft of US $230 million of state taxes.
Sergei testified against state officials involved in this fraud and was subsequently arrested, imprisoned without trial and systematically tortured, sadly dying in prison in 2019. Since then, Bill Browder has sought justice outside of Russia and started a global campaign for governments around the world to impose targeted visa bans and asset freezes on human rights abusers and highly corrupt officials.
During the interview, Bill Browder and Lord Finkelstein both discussed their family roots going back to the Soviet Union and Browder discussed in detail the tremendous journey Browder has been on to uncover Russian corruption today.
When asked by Lord Finkelstein how the war in Ukraine today would end, Browder responded that “to understand how it ends you have to understand how it started”, describing the economic unrest within Russia due to corruption and that the war began with Putin looking to distract the public from domestic discontent. Browder also described the next “big idea” that he is working on this year, which is instead of freezing the money from Russia, it should be seized and the money used to rebuild the devastation caused in Ukraine.
Lord Finkelstein closed the interview with the question, “Do you sometimes miss your life before all of this, before becoming a campaigner for justice and enforcer of the law at personal risk, do you sometimes wish that hadn’t been you?”.
Browder responded, “It’s my ambition now, it is infinitely more satisfying fighting for justice than fighting for money and so I wake up every day and I’m fully energised to do what I do and I feel like I’m living the best life I could be living.”
All guests were given a copy of Bill Browder’s latest book, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath, kindly donated Curtis Brown Agency.
The award this year, given in memory of Philip Greenwold, who was one of the Topland Group Lunch Committee’s original members, was awarded to Holocaust survivor, Mala Tribich MBE.
Mala has contributed a huge amount to Holocaust education during her lifetime, ensuring that generations to come know her story and the stories of others. She is a true inspiration to many around the world.
Accepting the award, Mala Tribich MBE, said:
“I salute all people involved in making Jewish Care such a wonderful organisation and it’s so important to the whole community, so it’s a real privilege to be recognised by them. I use the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre when I’m not travelling and I always get a lovely reception. I know that everyone who goes benefits from the wonderful programmes that are organised there. You’ve heard about my story, but I just wanted to confirm what I know everyone feels about Jewish Care and the very valuable work they do. Thank you very much for this award and I will treasure it.”
Daniel Carmel- Brown, Chief Executive, Jewish Care, said:
“We are absolutely thrilled to be back again at our second Topland Group Business Lunch in-person since the pandemic, and 35th in total. We are incredibly grateful to all of our guests who have helped to raise an extraordinary amount of money for our core services. With the cost of living crisis and energy bills rising, our costs have also increased by over £1 million in the last year, making the generous support of those who joined us today invaluable.
Jewish Care was honoured to give this year’s award to Mala Tribich MBE, who has given so much to Holocaust education; something that is so important, not just to our community, but to the world. Our Holocaust Survivor’s Centre is the only regular, dedicated space in the UK where survivors can gather together for support, festivals, social occasions and more, and we are so grateful that so many of them choose to be part of Jewish Care.
We also, of course, extend huge thanks to Bill Browder and Lord Daniel Finkelstein OBE for such an interesting address.”
David Pollock, Chairman of the Topland Group Business Committee, said:
“We are so glad to once again see the room filled with 900 guests and we owe a huge thanks to so many for helping to bring today together and provide great support for Jewish Care. I would also like to thank Sol and Eddie Zakay for their generous sponsorship of our lunch. Knowing the impact of the cost of living crisis on Jewish Care and holding events like this, they have generously increased their support this year, and for that, we are truly grateful.”