Amit Bhatia, a businessman and philanthropist, was born in London in 1979, to Arun and Renu Bhatia. He has an older brother (Aneesh) and a younger sister (Ayesha). He is fluent in Hindi, English and Spanish.
Bhatia is married to Vanisha Mittal, the only daughter of steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal. The couple were married in June 2004 with five days of celebrations and events staged at the Palace of Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte, France.[1][2]
Bhatia was educated in Delhi at Columba's School until 1995, and then at Dulwich College, United Kingdom, in 1996, and at the British School in Delhi in 1997.
Bhatia is an alumnus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in the United States where he studied Economics and Investment Management. After graduating, he took up posts in Mergers & Acquisitions at Morgan Stanley in New York and Credit Suisse First Boston in London, England.
Subsequently he incubated Swordfish Investments (a private equity fund) in 2005 and Swordfish Capital Management (a hedge fund) in 2006, both of which he owns and manages.
Additionally, Bhatia is involved in a number of private businesses including those in the areas of education, media, telecoms and real estate.
Bhatia joined the Board of Directors at Queens Park Rangers Football Club Queen's Park Rangers in London, as Vice Chairman when the Mittal family acquired a minority stake in December 2007, co-running the club with Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone.[3] He took part in a triathlon in the summer of 2009 to raise funds for the QPR in the Community Trust charity, raising some £32,000 himself. However in May 2011, just weeks after QPR secured promotion to the Premier League, Bhatia resigned as vice-chairman of the club after a disagreement with the board on a number of issues, including over the rise in ticket prices. He returned to the position after Tony Fernandes took control of the club in August 2011
In 2007, Bhatia also initiated the Mittal Champions Trust, which sponsors Indian sportsmen with world-class potential, one of whom, Abhinav Bindra, exceeded all expectations to achieve a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics just one year later in 2008.
In 2011, Bhatia donated money to the Cornell University Library System to support its café space in the first floor of The John M. Olin Library. The café was renamed that same year to "Amit Bhatia Libe Café;" it had formerly been known as just "Libe Café".[4]