Terry Matthews
In the South Wales valleys, Sir Terry Matthews will always be known as the local lad who brought the Ryder Cup – and a NATO summit -- to the Celtic Manor golf resort that he transformed with his fortune.
The dual UK and Canadian citizen gives new meaning to the term ‘serial entrepreneur’, claiming to have set up or funded over 100 companies, mainly through his Wesley Clover investment firm based in Ottawa.
Having started work at 16 for BT’s research unit in Dollis Hill, he made his fortune from telecom infrastructure companies he went on to found. He sold Mitel to BT in the 1980s and Newbridge Networks to France’s Alcatel in 2000, in a deal worth around $7 billion at the time.
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