Dinesh Dhamija

Biography

Dhamija was born in Australia, the son of an Indian diplomat. He grew up in India, Mauritius, Afghanistan, Czechoslovakia and the Netherlands. He received a classical education at King's School, Canterbury and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he attained an MA in law.

He began his professional career working for IBM, but soon left to begin his own business. In 1980, Dinesh and his wife Tani started selling travel tickets from a kiosk at Earl's Court tube station in London. By 1983, the business venture had developed into Flightbookers, a travel agency with three established premises. The firm grew rapidly and, in 1987, was appointed General Sales Agent for Royal Nepal Airlines in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Over the next decade, the company became known across Europe and established offices in 12 countries.

In 1996 Dhamija was introduced to the relatively new idea of the Internet. Realising the potential, he began to raise funds for the development of an interactive branch of Flightbookers. In 1999 Ebookers became the first interactive online travel agency in the United Kingdom. Within a few years, the firm had established itself as one of Europe's leading travel agencies. In 2005, Dhamija sold Ebookers for £209m. He is now one of the wealthiest Asian residents in the UK, with an estimated worth of £100m as of 2004.

Dhamija was awarded the 2003 Entrepreneur of the Year award by the Management Today magazine. More recently, he was the founder and chairman of the Copper Beech Group, a firm involved in residential property development in Romania and education infrastructure in India.

Dhamija currently works as a Board Advisor for serviced apartment provider TheSqua.re.