Iraj Ispahani is the CEO of Ispahani Advisory Ltd. and is based in London. Ispahani Advisory advises family businesses on business strategy, governance, strategic philanthropy, people, and education. The firm operates internationally and specialises in working with family and private businesses, private foundations and wealth owners. Iraj serves as a Group Director and Board Member of the Ispahani Group, a family business headquartered in Bangladesh which marked 200 years in 2020.

Prior to joining the family business Iraj held global and regional leadership roles in banking at JP Morgan and organisational development at Korn/Ferry. During his sixteen-year career at JP Morgan, where he was Global COO of the Financial Institutions Group, Iraj worked in fixed-income markets, investment banking and asset and wealth management. At the JP Morgan Private Bank in London and Geneva Iraj advised wealth owners on investment strategy and generational planning. At Korn/Ferry he led EMEA financial services and advised asset and wealth managers, hedge funds and private equity firms on governance leadership and people. He also co-founded Cantos an online corporate communications business in 2001.

Iraj is Chair of The Shakespeare’s Globe Council. Prior to this Iraj served as Deputy Chairman and Trustee of Shakespeare’s Globe. He also served as Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and Chairman of the Nominations Committee. He  was till recently a Member of the Advisory Board of ‘Seeing is Believing’, Standard Chartered Bank’s global initiative to tackle avoidable blindness in collaboration with The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). In October 2019 Iraj was appointed as an Independent Trustee of the newly established Standard Chartered Foundation. Iraj is an Advisor to UNICEF in the UK and in Bangladesh. In January 2021, Iraj was appointed as a member of the UK Development Board of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Iraj is editor of the Family Business and Responsible Wealth Ownership: Preparing the Next Generation, published by Globe Law and Business in 2021. He is co-author of Circular Economy Principles for Family Business and Wealth Stewardship – A New Governance and Sustainability Framework, published by STEP in 2022.

Iraj is Founding Advisor and member of the Advisory Group of a programme led by the Institute for Sustainability Leadership at Cambridge on Multi-Generational Leadership, equipping wealth and business owning families to shape the 21st century.

Iraj was a Founding Advisor of the Responsible Family Business and Wealth Ownership program created by Cambridge Judge Business School.

Iraj was educated at Winchester College and holds a Master’s of Philosophy degree in international relations from Cambridge University and a Bachelor’s Degree (with honours) from London University in politics and history.

2022