Anthony Bailey (interfaith campaigner)

His Excellency
Sir Anthony Bailey
Born 1970
London, United Kingdom
Occupation Interfaith campaigner
government & diplomatic counsellor
Public Relations Consultant
Fundraiser
Spouse(s) HSH Princess Marie-Therese of Hohenberg, Lady Bailey
Children Maximilian Bailey (born 2010)

Sir Anthony John James Bailey, KGCN, OBE, GCSS, KC*HS, HonFCollT (born 1970), is an Irish-British-Antiguan millionaire campaigner engaged in furthering cultural, educational, commercial and inter-religious relations between Europe and the wider world. He is also known as a well connected international public relations consultant to statesmen and foreign governments including some with senior diplomatic rank.[1] He is a donor and fundraiser to numerous charities.[2]

Early life

Bailey was born in London in 1970 to an Irish mother and British father. In 1991 he graduated from the University College London in Contemporary East European Studies. He later studied at Corvinus University of Budapest in Hungary, and at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski and St Cyril and St Methodius University of Veliko Turnovo in Bulgaria.

In October 2007 Bailey married Princess Marie-Therese of Hohenberg, a member of the Austrian Ducal House of Hohenberg. Among the couple's witnesses at the three-day wedding celebration held in Salzburg were Prince Konstantin-Assen of Bulgaria, Lord Nicholas Windsor, Duchess Fleur of Württemberg and Baroness Scotland of Asthal.[3] Their first child, Maximilian Albert Christian George Bailey, was born in March 2010.[4]

Interfaith activities

Bailey is an inter-faith campaigner and is actively engaged in several faith based charities. Among them include the Three Faiths Forum, the Forthspring Inter-Community Group in Belfast, the Catholic Union of Great Britain and the Association of Papal Orders in Britain. In 2009 Bailey was appointed Grand Magistral Delegate for Inter-Religious Relations and Delegate for Great Britain and Ireland of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George and the Royal Order of Francis I. He is also Vice-President of the Association of Papal Orders in Ireland. He has organised several high-profile interfaith conferences across Europe and the Middle East attended by leading Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders.

Anthony Bailey is a donor and prominent fundraiser who is reported to have raised millions of pounds for numerous inter-religious and faith-based charitable organisations in the United Kingdom, Eastern and Central Europe and the Arab world.

In 2012 Bailey was awarded the prestigious Sternberg Interfaith Gold Medallion by interfaith leader Sigmund Sternberg who said it was granted "in recognition of Anthony Bailey's many years of endeavour and exceptional contribution to the improvement of understanding between the faiths in Britain and across the world".

International

Bailey was appointed in 1999 as Executive Chairman of Painting & Patronage[5] by HRH Prince Khalid Al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia – currently Governor of Makkah Region. Painting & Patronage is a prominent cultural, artistic and educational project between Saudi Arabia and Europe and Bailey has organised high profile exchanges in the United Kingdom under the joint patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales, President Jorge Sampaio of Portugal and President Filip Vujanović of Montenegro. Bailey is a counsellor to the King Faisal Foundation and is a director of the Saudi-British Society.[6] Bailey holds positions with several other organisations and charities aimed at promoting European-Arab relations including the Moroccan-British Society and the Anglo-Arab Organisation.

Bailey is the former Chief Policy Adviser of the Foreign Policy Centre.[7] Bailey is a member of the UK Board of Cooperation Ireland which works to foster greater co-operation between Britain and Ireland and is a board director of the Waterford Museum of Treasures.

Bailey is actively engaged in charitable and cultural initiatives in the Caribbean. In 2014 it was widely reported that Bailey was leading a multi-million pound charitable engagement in Antigua & Barbuda,[8] Dominica[9] and St Lucia,[10] which include the restoration of three cathedrals in Castries, Roseau and St John's, building a school, an old people's home, a youth centre and community outreach centre. In 2014 Bailey was additionally appointed a member of Antigua and Barbuda's Government House Restoration Committee [11] and in 2015 was appointed by the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda as the Special Economic Envoy of Antigua and Barbuda in Europe.

Diplomatic

Anthony Bailey has held numerous official and semi-official roles with statesmen across the world offering strategic advise and counselling including the setting up and organising of state and official visits abroad. In 2009 Bailey was appointed Special Envoy of The President of Montenegro to the Middle East and North Africa with the additional rank of Ambassador-at-Large and has been responsible for organising the official visits of the President to the region including Saudi Arabia in 2010. Bailey was reappointed to this role following the President's re-election in May 2013 and co-ordinated the President's official visit to Jordan in October 2013.

Education

Bailey since 2002 has been an adviser on education to the Department for Education.[5] He also hold directorships with several leading educational trusts and charities including the United Learning Trust which runs the largest group of Academy schools in Britain, the Archdiocese of Westminster and St Mary's University in Twickenham.[12]

Bailey is credited with raising over £8 million to fund the Academy schools programme.[13]

In 2014 Bailey was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the College of Teachers (HonFCollT) in recognition of his services to Education.[14]

Public relations

In 2009 Bailey was placed in 68th position in the British edition of GQ magazine's 100 Most Powerful List.[15] The Observer in 2007 referred to Bailey as a "PR Guru who is one of the most influential men you have never heard of" and "a key player in the world of Catholic and Middle East politics".[2]

Politics and donations

Bailey was until 1997 a pro-EU supporter of the British Conservative Party. Since that time Bailey has become a supporter, fundraiser and donor to New Labour. In 2004 he had a donation controversially rejected by the then party fundraiser and Middle East envoy Lord Levy.[16] It was later reported that Levy felt sidelined by Bailey's growing high-level Middle Eastern contacts and fundraising capabilities. Prime Minister Tony Blair and other senior party officials publicly apologised to Bailey soon after the incident and the Labour Party have regularly welcomed donations made by him and raised by him.[17] In 2006 the Electoral Commission reported that Bailey had donated £50,600 to Labour.

In 2007 it was further reported that Bailey was responsible for securing Labour a £1 million donation from Mahmoud Khayami – one of the largest ever donations received by Labour.[18] In August 2010 Bailey made a donation of £50,000 to the David Miliband Leadership campaign.[19]

Publications

Honours and awards

Bailey has been highly decorated in several countries in recognition of his professional and charitable work.[20] He was knighted in 2014 by the Queen in right of Antigua and Barbuda as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Nation and became an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours List in Britain. His awards include:

National honours

Dynastic orders

Freedoms

References

External links