Nina Bracewell-Smith

Lady Bracewell-Smith
Born	Nina Kakkar 14 November 1955 New Delhi, India
Years active	1995-date
Spouse	Charles Bracewell-Smith (m. 1996–present) «start: (1996)»"Marriage: Charles Bracewell-Smith to Nina Bracewell-Smith" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Bracewell-Smith)

Lady Bracewell-Smith (born 14 November 1955) is an Indian-born, United Kingdom-based businesswoman. She was a major shareholder and former non-executive director of the English Premier League football club Arsenal.^[1][2]

Background

Born Nina Kakkar in New Delhi, she is the daughter of an Indian diplomat.^[3] She arrived in London in 1990 and the following year on 20 August 1991 at Westminster Register Office while working as a beauty therapist she married the homosexual Mark Forsyth, a "struggling computer programmer". They never lived as man and wife and formally divorced in 1995.^[4] In 1994 she moved in with Sir Charles Bracewell-Smith, 4th Baronet (of Keighley in the County of Yorkshire) and in July 1996 they married at Westminster Register Office. He is the son of the former Arsenal director Sir Guy Bracewell-Smith, 2nd Baronet, who was on the Arsenal board of directors from May 1953 to September 1976. Sir Guy was in turn the son of the former Arsenal director Sir Bracewell Smith, 1st Baronet, who was chairman from 1948 to 1962.

Arsenal FC

Lady Bracewell-Smith's share in Arsenal comes from the estate of Sir Bracewell Smith, which was split among his grandchildren, Sir Charles Bracewell-Smith, Clive Carr (Life Vice-President), Richard Carr (still a director) and Sarah Carr, now Lady Phipps-Bagge.^[5] Sir Charles Bracewell-Smith transferred ownership of his shares to his wife, Lady Bracewell-Smith, and she was made a non-executive director of Arsenal in 2005; her appointment increased the membership of Arsenal's Board of Directors to ten.

As of September 2007, Lady Bracewell-Smith owned a 15.9% stake in the club and was the third largest shareholder in the club following Danny Fiszman, with 24.11%, and Red and White Holdings, which is co-owned by Farhad Moshiri and Alisher Usmanov, which owns 24.0% of the equity. In April 2007, she joined with the other board members, her husband’s cousins, as well as Danny Fiszman and the chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, in resisting a take-over by Usmanov, which was believed to have the support of former vice-chairman David Dein.^[6] On 17 December 2008 Arsenal Holdings PLC made this announcement: "Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith will be leaving the Boards of the Company and the Club with immediate effect."^[7]

On 11 April 2011, she sold her Arsenal shares amounting to 15.9% of club's stake to Stan Kroenke. ^[8]

Other business interests

Lady Bracewell-Smith was also formerly a director of the Park Lane Sheraton Hotel. The Bracewell-Smith family has strong connections to hotels having previously owned the Ritz Hotel in London, which they sold in 1976, together with a large share of the Paris Ritz; they also held the majority of the shares in the Park Lane Hotel (built by Sir Bracewell Smith in 1920) until its £44m sale in 1996.^[9]

She and her husband were ranked 657th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2009 ^[10] with an estimated family fortune of £85m.^[9] She is also 44th on The Sunday Times UK Asian rich list,^[11] 72nd on the women list and is in the European Rich List.^[12]

References

1. ^ "The Arsenal Board". Arsenal.com. http://www.arsenal.com/the-club/corporate-info/the-arsenal-board. 
2. ^ Burke's Peerage^{[dead link]}
3. ^ Dart, Tom (20 April 2007). "Aristocrat has no desire to part with family heirloom". London: Times Online. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premiership/arsenal/article1680369.ece. Retrieved 20 May 2010. 
4. ^ http://www.sunday-guardian.com/investigation/ex-arsenal-lady-has-mysterious-delhi-past
5. ^ Bond, David (19 April 2007). "Arsenal crisis as Dein is ousted from board". London: Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/04/19/sfnfro19.xml. Retrieved 20 May 2010. 
6. ^ "Dynasty v Dein in battle for the board". Mail Online. 19 April 2007. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=449619&in_page_id=1779. 
7. ^ "Club announce board re-shuffle". Arsenal FC. 17 December 2008. http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/arsenal-holdings-plc-board-restructuring. 
8. ^ "Arsenal investor Lady Bracewell-Smith 'sell shares'". Plus-sx. 11 April 2011. http://www.plus-sx.com/newsItem.html?newsId=1155049. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "Sunday Times Rich List 2006 - Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith and Family". The Sunday Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/richlist/person/0,,43853,00.html. Retrieved 20 May 2010. 
10. ^ Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith and family Times Online, 26 April 2009
11. ^ "Britain's Richest Asians". The Sunday Times (London). http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/pdfs/strlasians.pdf. Retrieved 20 May 2010. 
12. ^ "Richest People in Europe". Revs.org. http://www.revs.org/blog/?p=29. 

External links

• Sunday Telegraph: The mystery of Lady Nina, Arsenal and her 'insignificant' first marriage

Persondata
Name	Bracewell-Smith, Nina
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	14 November 1955
Place of birth	New Delhi, India
Date of death
Place of death