William Browder

Sir William Browder, KCMG is a financier and political activist. He is the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, the investment adviser to the Hermitage Fund, formerly the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia until he was declared “a threat to national security” in 2005 for exposing corruption in Russian state-owned companies.

He graduated in Economics from the University of Chicago and earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and received an honorary doctorate from Colgate University. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Saïd School of Business (University of Oxford). 

Browder began his career in the Eastern European practice of the Boston Consulting Group in London, then worked for Robert Maxwell's Maxwell Communication Corporation, and subsequently managed the Russian proprietary investments desk at Salomon Brothers.

Browder and Edmond Safra (1932–1999) founded Hermitage Capital Management in 1996, investing an initial seed capital of $25 million in Russia during the mass privatization period following the fall of the Soviet Union.

In 2008, Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, uncovered a massive fraud committed by Russian government officials involving the theft of $230 million in state taxes. Magnitsky was subsequently arrested, imprisoned without trial, and systematically tortured.

Sergei Magnitsky died in prison on November 16, 2009. Ever since, Sir William has led the Global Magnitsky Campaign for governments around the world to impose targeted visa bans and asset freezes on human rights abusers and highly corrupt officials, introducing the passage of the Sergei Magnitsky Accountability Act in 2012 and the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act in 2016. This legislation has since been adopted by 35 countries, including the USA, the UK, the EU, Canada and Australia.

For his exceptional service to the UK abroad and internationally, in recognition of his significant and sustained contribution to human rights and anti-corruption, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) by King Charles III in the 2024 Birthday Honours List.