Ivan Massow
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Ivan Massow (born 1967) is a prominent businessman and British politician, formerly chairman of London's Institute of Contemporary Arts.
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[edit] Personal life
Born Ivan Field, Massow was adopted by bachelor John Massow after being abused by his natural father and step-father. He has had little contact with his adoptive father since coming out as gay. In 1996 his long-term boyfriend James committed suicide. He subsequently trained with Samaritans and chaired the Mental Health and Social Inclusion Inquiry for MIND, the mental health charity. In 1999 the press ran stories that Massow wanted to have a baby with lesbian comedian, Jackie Clune, but this never happened. Having fostered, Massow is seen as an urban dandy, with celebrity friends. His flatmates were for a time Conservative columnist, now Tory MP, Michael Gove and head of Tory policy and Conservative London Maryoral candidate Nicholas Boles, a situation Massow described as "Tory Friends".
He is known for his support for Fox Hunting — he has been field Hunt Master and Joint Master of the Cokeham Bloodhounds. He has also owned race horses.
[edit] Business
Massow is severely dyslexic and left education with an O-level in metalwork in Brighton and a BTEC in art and design in Eastbourne. He started work in the insurance industry in Bristol. Within a few years, he had become very successful. Massow was angry that gay men were penalised for their sexuality when they applied for financial services: in a time of increasing HIV rates, gay men were seen as high risk and required to pay much higher premiums than other customers, whatever their circumstances.
In 1990, Massow started a financial services business from a flat in Kentish Town, north London. He found ways that gay people could take up mortgages and insurance at more or less equal rates. Soon he was cashing in on the "pink pound" and became a millionaire. Many credit him with inventing the concept of a pink pound in the UK. His firm was the 10th largest IFA in the UK by 1997. Among many ventures, he launched the magazine Phase in March 1994, but the venture collapsed. In 2000 he started the online community/magazine 'Jake' (www.jaketm.org) which holds events every week and is the largest professional community of its type in the world - with events every week of the year.
In 1996, venture capitalists Catalyst invested in Massow Financial Services. However when Massow exited the business after a merger with Rainbow, the other gay financial services provider, it led to the firm's near ruin. Rainbow Massow collapsed, and in 2001 Massow was forced to return to the company and reinvest in order to save it. He has since expanded his customer base to provide insurance for those with a history of mental health problems.
When Massow finally stablised the business, he then re-sold it, this time to the employees of the firm, in 2004.
In 2004 Massow started an ongoing massive legal battle with insurance giant, Zurich Life, over corporate homophobia - citing their refusal to allow two males to apply joinly for mortgage cover and charging gay men higher premiums. The High Court claim is set to cost Zurich almost £14m before any awards granted to Massow by the courts for the loss of business.
In autumn 2005 Ivan Massow appeared on the Channel 4 television series Make Me A Million, acting as investor and adviser to a start-up business, Halos n Horns, which was a children's shampoo. The business was selected by the judges as most valuable with good prospects for growth. The brand is curently the third largest in the UK, overtaking Simple after less than a year of trading.
[edit] Politics
Massow had joined the Conservative Party as a teenager and was Chairman of his local Young Conservatives at 14. He became friends with prominent Conservative politicians and was feted as a rare gay Tory. His money and good looks increased his visibility and association with top politicians. In 1999, Massow was Lady Thatcher's escort at the Conservative Party Conference.
Massow made no secret of his ambition to become a Member of Parliament or peer. However, his name was put low down on the list of potential Conservative candidates because of his outspoken campaign for an inclusive and contemporary Tory party and no association chose him. In 1999. When Jeffrey Archer stood down as Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, Massow was asked by senior officials to join the race for the party nomination, believing that only someone with his inclusive ideals could stand a chance against Ken Livingston. However, he pulled out, backing Steve Norris and working on his campaign as senior policy advisor.
Massow had been active on gay issues. The Conservatives had seemed a strange choice, but Massow supported them on economic matters and felt that the Labour Party had its fair share of homophobes. Moreover, he wanted to put issues of intolerance, such as homophobia, behind them and end discrimination across the spectrum of political parties. However, he felt that his erstwhile friend William Hague's support for Section 28, a measure preventing the promotion of homosexuality in the classroom, was a step in the wrong direction. Many espousing "compassionate conservatism" were tested by this policy and other gay rights matters, leading to the defection of Shaun Woodward MP to Labour and John Bercow MP's resignation from the frontbench. Likewise Massow wanted to shame the party into change.
Massow did this by following Woodward into the Labour Party in 2000, where he was welcomed. Indeed, there was a large amount of press interest in his change of party, despite him having never held elected office or even stood for Parliament. However, his time in Labour was short-lived. He resigned and attempted to stand again as Mayor of London in 2004 with his own movement "Change London", although his name in the end never made it onto the ballot paper. As a fox-hunting businessman he had proved as uncomfortable in Labour as he did as a gay Tory. However, his ‘Change London’ campaign brought to the attention of the government and the mayor's office the potential long term effects on business of under-funding in transport and crime prevention. These were later incorporated into the Mayor's own campaign manifesto.
[edit] Contemporary art
In 1999, Massow became Chairman of London's influential Institute of Contemporary Arts. In January 2002, he wrote an article in the New Statesman magazine attacking his colleagues in the art world. He described contemporary conceptual art as "all hype and frequently no substance" and "the product of over-indulged, middle-class, bloated egos who patronise real people with fake understanding". He called the ICA a "pillar of the shock establishment". He attacked Tracey Emin saying she "couldn't think her way out of a paper bag". Although Massow was effectively sacked by the ICA for his comments, they marked a turning point in the arts debate which saw the arts world change direction from the purely conceptual work which had dominated the arts scene being unchallenged. Within a year, even government art ministers were echoing his statements, and the Turner Prize completely altered its nomination criteria. Subsequent winners included traditional craft-based artists such as the potter Grayson Perry.
By February, Massow had resigned, forced out by the ICA Council. Subsequent interviews with Massow revelaed that this was likely anyway, given his uncomfortable relationship with the ICA Director and his views on art. He has described the art world as bitchy and superficial, although he claims to actually like much conceptual art and acted in order to redress the imbalance between support for conceptual and "traditional" arts in the British art scene.
Massow subsequently set up the Institute of Contemporary Culture, a forum for artists supposedly free from "orthodoxy".
[edit] Media
Massow's relationship with the media started at the age of 21, when his good looks and charismatic appeal gained him the role of Financial Adviser at the launch of Channel 4's 'The Big Breakfast'. His entrepreneurial flair, far-sighted visionary style and often controversial opinions have meant that he's had a lengthy media career. His involvement in areas of public life from human rights issues to property restoration have meant that he is often consulted as a TV pundit.
Massow frequently writes in the UK press; from articles in broadsheets, including features in the Guardian or the Daily Telegraph and the 'Thunderer' column in the Times, to being an occasional comment writer for broad-sheet newspapers and magazines ranging from the New Statesman and The Spectator to FHM and GQ. He currently writes a monthly business advice column in Esquire magazine.
Massow makes regular appearances on national television, from being the 'Entrepreneurial Expert' on Richard and Judy to shows such as Mariella Frostrup, BBC’s Question Time and Newsnight. He was the subject of ‘Inside the Mind of a Millionaire’, a BBC documentary about entrepreneurship which featured his prison work. He was also the winner of 'Make Me a Million' on Channel 4 in November 2005, a competition between 3 teams led by prominent enterpreneurs to 'make a million' in a year from a start-up company.
Ivan is also a regular spokesman on national TV and radio on subjects from finance and gay rights to culture and mental health issues. Ivan is also regularly invited to speak at conferences and public meetings on entrepreneurship, human rights, art and social inclusion within the work place.
[edit] Charity
Massow has been involved with a number of charity initiatives since starting his business in 1990. This includes becoming the first mainstream business to sponsor London's Gay Pride festival at a time when it was largely shunned by commercial enterprises.
Charity involvements and initiatives include founder/sponsor of ‘Insurance for Survivors’ – a coalition of four major charities whose aim is to increase awareness within the financial services industry of the problems encountered by survivors of mental health issues, cancer and major transplants. He was Chairman of MIND’s enquiry into mental health and social exclusion and creator / co-ordinator of a Pre-Release scheme helping prisoners to start businesses for the Prince’s Trust. This led to Massow giving lectures at Feltham YOI to prisoners interested in entrepreneurship.
He is a member of the ‘Entreprenologists’, a group which investigaties what defines an entrepreneur and how government can encourage/assist entrepreneurship in the UK. He is a Trustee of the ‘Entrepreneur’s Working Party’, a DTI/Treasury inspired initiative. This position inspired him to approach the Prince’s Trust to create the prisons programme.
Massow is also creator/sponsor of the ‘Jake Network’ (www.jaketm.org) the fastest-growing social/professional network in the UK which holds over 300 events a year in London for gay professionals, though he is known to keep a low profile and rarely attends events.
Massow was a Patron of REGARD – a charity/support group helping gay people with physical disabilities. He founded of the April Bombing Appeal which raised cash for victims of the nail bombs in Soho, Brixton and Brick Lane in February 2000, raising cash to provide wheelchair access in homes and financial support for people unable to work as a result of their injuries.
Massow was a founder member of the ‘Me Too’ anti-violence campaign with Elizabeth Vallance, Rabbi Julia Neuberger and Lord Saatchi. The campaign aims to provide a voice for people who want to promote social, racial and cultural difference as part of the UK national identity.
Massow was a former member of the Samaritan’s central marketing/fundraising team working on the Ambassador’s Project and is a trained Samaritan. He is involved in a number of social and charity organisations and campaigns and a consultant to committees such as Stonewall and GALOP. He is Patron of the Salon des Arts – a gallery devoted to giving unknown artists a stage.
In the past Massow has sponsored a number of organisations including the Covent Garden Arts Festival, Stonewall FC (1st and 2nd teams) and the Terrence Higgins Trust, as a ‘Friend for Life’. Massow was the main sponsor for the 2001 Stonewall Equality Dinner at the Savoy. He has also sponsored many gay pride events around the UK.
