An Indian heiress

Fri, May 2 12:30 AM

She's the London-based heiress and philanthropist who paid Bill Clinton a whopping $4,50,000 to speak at the fund-raiser of her Fortune Forum in London. Renu Mehta, who has been described by the Brit press as the 'reformed' socialite, talks exclusively to HT City about life, India and having a diary full of the world's most important people.

Mehta spent her 20s working as a professional model and fashion designer at the family firm, Sphere in UK. But she's also got roots in India.

"I have a family in Delhi whom I adore and keep in close contact with," she says. "My brother Sanjay has shifted to Delhi to expand the family clothing operation," which she left three years ago to concentrate on her philanthropic work.

Now, the self-styled Essex princess works closely with father, Vijay, a wealthy textile importer-turned-peace activist. From partying and socialising to philanthropy, how did this happen? Renu says, "I've always wanted to give back.

Quite simply, I wanted to leverage my network of influential friends to some deeper good. So I started to read up on the global issues and realised that the issues of poverty, diseases and climate change are in fact all interrelated.

So I set up an organisation to address these issues and that's how Fortune Forum was launched in 2006. Now she is known as a formidable networker who uses her bulging address book to snare the likes of Bill Clinton, Michael Douglas and Cat Stevens on behalf of her Fortune Forum.

Does she have anything planned for India? Renu replies, "My long-term goal is to stimulate the culture of giving in the UK; it is way behind more responsible nations like the US. I'm working on tax reforms with Sir James Mirrlees - Britain's only living Nobel Prize-wining economist.

If we are successful in reforming the UK tax system to transfer tax cuts towards the poor, the goal of ending universal poverty could well be mutually advanced. It is then that my eyes will turn to India with a renewed spirit to meet the vast challenges of her disadvantaged people.

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