Founder & Chairman

Vincent Abrams is the Founder & Chairman of Northrup Drummond, he was previously Founder & Chairman at Merlin Publishing which published I-MAGAZINE.

Vice Chair

Warren Buffett is a legendary American investor, philanthropist, and former CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, widely regarded as one of the most successful investors in history. Known as the "Oracle of Omaha," he advocates for value investing and long-term holding.

Advisor

Marland was one of the founding directors of Jardine Lloyd Thompson, a multinational insurance business, where he led the acquisitions of companies including Hunter Boot Ltd (2006), and backed the online news magazine The World Weekly (2013). He also founded the Jubilee insurance company at Lloyd's of London.

Philanthropy Advisor

Melinda French Gates (born August 15, 1964) is a prominent American philanthropist, businesswoman, and global advocate for women and girls. After a 25-year tenure as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which she helped establish in 2000, she departed in 2024 to focus on her own organization, Pivotal Ventures, and a $1 billion commitment to support women's rights.

Advisor

Sir James Dyson is a renowned British inventor, industrial designer, and entrepreneur best known for founding Dyson while championing engineering education through the James Dyson Foundation. 

African Investment Fund Advisor

Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian industrialist and philanthropist. As founder of the Dangote Group, he built a massive conglomerate dominating cement, sugar etc in Nigeria. 

Advisor

Sir Richard Branson is an English business magnate and adventurer who founded the Virgin Group a conglomerate that has managed more than 400 companies across sectors like music, travel, and telecommunications.

Advisor

William Waldorf Astor, 4th Viscount Astor is a British businessman, politican and member of the prominent Astor family. He has sat as a Conservative hereditary peer in the House of Lords since 1973, formally taking his seat in 1972 after turning 21, and was one of the 92 elected to remain after the House of Lords Act 1999.

Obsidian Fund Co Founder

Steven Bartlett is a prominent, British entreprenuer, investor, author, and media personality, famous for hosting the hit podcast "The Diary of a CEO," being the youngest-ever judge on BBC's "Dragons' Den," and founding successful companies like Social Chain, Flight Story, and thirdweb. Born in Botswana in 1992, he built his career through social media marketing, later expanding into media, investment, and Web3 technology, becoming a leading voice in business and digital culture

Advisor

Advisor Robert F. Smith is a prominent American businessman, investor, and philanthropist, best known as the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a leading private equity firm focused on software, data, and technology-enabled businesses. He is one of the richest African Americans, known for investing in enterprise software, supporting HBCUs,

Advisor

Masayoshi Son is a visionary Japanese billionaire, entrepreneur and investor, best known as the founder and CEO of SoftBank Group, a Tokyo based tech holding company. renowned for his investment style, Son established the Vision Fund, backing major tech firms like Alibaba, ARM, and ByteDance.

African Investment Fund Advisor

Chief Michael Adenuga Jr is a Nigerian billionaire businessman. His company Globacom is Nigeria's second-largest telecom operator and also has a presence in Ghana and Benin. He also owns stakes in the Equitorial Trust Bank.

Advisor

Baron Hastings of Scarisbrick, CBE is currently the Professor of Leadership at the Stephen R. Covey Leadership Centre at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, Utah State University, USA, and sits on the Concordia Leadership Council. He served as Chancellor of Regent's University London from October 2016 to October 2021. He has been appointed as the current Chair of the SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) Board of Trustees and is an NED at Saxton Bampfylde.

Hastings is also Chairman of the Council of ZANE, a development aid agency focused on Zimbabwe, and vice president of Tear Fund. In 2011, he became vice president of UNICEF, the UN Children's and Education Fund.

Advisor

Bernard Arnault is Chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton, the world’s leading luxury products group. He has been awarded the honorary titles of Grand-croix de la Légion d’Honneur and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.

Schools / Univeristies Advisor

Pauline Perry, Baroness Perry of Southwark is a distinguished British educator, academic, and Conservative life peer.

She was the former Vice - Chancellor of South Bank University she became the first woman to run a British university. She was also Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools 1981–1986. 

Philanthropy Advisor

John Rogers Jr, is an American investor and founder of Ariel Capital Management (now Ariel Investments, LLC), founded in 1983. He is chairman and co-CEO of the company, which is the United States' largest minority-run mutual fund firm. He has been a regular contributor to Forbes magazine for most of the last decade.Active in the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign, Rogers was a leader of the 2009 inauguration committee.

John Rogers will advise on Northrup Drummond’s philanthropic endeavours in marginalised communities in the United States, where we will be investing in neighbourhoods and inner city areas, building retail, residential, education and other institutions.

Advisor

Eddie C. Brown is an American investment manager, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the founder and president of Brown Capital Management, a Baltimore-based firm that has amassed over $10 billion under management since its 1983 founding. Brown and his wife, Sylvia, have given millions to various charitable causes under the aegis of the Baltimore-based Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Family Foundation.

Advisor

Sheila Johnson is a pioneering American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and hotelier, best known as the co-founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and the first African American woman to achieve billionaire status. She is the founder and CEO of the Salamander Collection, a portfolio of luxury resorts, and holds ownership stakes in three professional sports teams.

United States Investment Advisor

Roy Donahue "Don" Peebles is an American real estate entrepreneur, author, and political fundraiser. He is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of the Peebles Corporation, a privately held real estate investment and development company established in 1983. The firm focuses on luxury commercial and residential developments in major U.S. cities including New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Miami.

Advisor

Ben Derbyshire is a British architect. He is the current chair of HTA Design LLP and a former President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Derbyshire is on the governing body of WCCA Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects, a modern livery company of the City of London. WCCA exists to promote architecture in the City of London and the architectural profession globally.