Tony Blair gets another new job – in Silicon Valley

News in pictures
News in pictures
On Facebook
From the blogs

Sepp Blatter: Penalty shoot-outs must remain, they’re football’s great leveller

As England supporters, we should scorn at any such deciding factor within football. On so many occas...

Why do some men consider the street as a female meat market?

Pronouncements on sexual inequality in the UK are normally met with an eye roll by my generation. As...

Political corruption reflects the widening chasm between the political class and the electorate

The corruption and hypocrisy which has come to characterise politics and politicians, and in particu...

Despite its popularity, the death penalty would allow the state to kill innocent people

The University of Michigan law school and Northwestern University have just compiled a database of o...

Tony Blair's crusading belief in science as a way of solving global warming has landed him another lucrative business appointment. The former Prime Minister has been hired as a senior adviser by a Silicon Valley firm which is planning to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in green technology.

The post means that Mr Blair will be practising what he preached when he pleaded with world leaders ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit not to allow global warming to cause conflict between developed western nations and the developing eastern nations.

"There are huge business opportunities in green technology whether you are in London or California, China or India," Mr Blair said in August last year, four months before the summit opened. He has now landed one of those business opportunities himself, by a securing a new role as part time public policy adviser to Khosla Ventures, which was founded in 2004 by the Indian born billionaire Vinod Khosla. It is a venture capital firm looking to invest £770 million in clean technology.

Mr Blair's role will be to provide advice that will help open up foreign markets for firms such as the manufacturer Calera, which uses carbon dioxide to create cement products, or Pax Streamline, which aims to make air conditioning environmentally friendly.

"The more I studied the whole climate change issue and linking it with energy, security and development issues, I became absolutely convinced that the answer is in the technology," Mr Blair told the New York Times. "Technological breakthroughs that are economically viable – for governments, that's the holy grail."

It has not been disclosed how much he will be paid in his new role, but it is likely that his fee will be in six figures, furnishing yet more proof that being an ex-prime minister is much more lucrative than being a serving one.

While David Cameron makes do with an annual salary of £142,500 – augmented by his wife Samantha's earnings – Mr Blair has accumulated at least £15m in the three years since he left office. Some estimate that the figure is nearer £20m.

He was paid an advance of £4.6m for his memoirs, which will be published in September. He is one of the world's highest paid public speakers, collecting a fee of almost £400,000 for two 30-minute speeches he delivered during a 36-hour stopover in the Philippines in April last year.

He is paid around £3.5m a year as a senior adviser to the Wall Street bank JP Morgan, and another £500,000 a year for a similar role at Zurich Financial Services. In March, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which vets jobs taken by ex-ministers, revealed that Mr Blair is also a "governance adviser" to the Kuwait government, for which he is believed to have received another £1m.

In addition to this highly paid work, Mr Blair has a diary crammed with good works which he carries out unpaid, notably his role as peace representative in the Middle East. He also runs the African Governance Initiative, which provides advice on good government to Sierra Leone and other African states, and the Breaking the Climate Deadlock initiative, which aims to secure an international agreement on global warming.

Then there is the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which aims to promote understanding about the world's major religions, and the Tony Blair Sports Foundation, which was set up to encourage young people in the north east of England to take part in sport.

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Career Services

Day In a Page

For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos in Greece

For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos

On a secluded peninsula in north-east Greece lies an enclave that's way off the tourist map, especially for women...
48 Hours In: Faro

48 Hours In: Faro

More than just the gateway to the Algarve, this city has much to tempt you off the beach.
Here, the coast is always clear: Celebrating sixty years of Pembrokeshire's National Park

60 years of Pembrokeshire's National Park

Mick Webb reveals a land of puffins, tanks and Hollywood blockbusters.
Free Range: Meet the designers of tomorrow

Free Range

Meet the artists of the future
Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

As scientists at Rothamsted's GM trials plead with activists not to sabotage their work, Michael McCarthy visits the battle field
Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Deep in Cameroon's rainforests, poachers are killing primates for food. Evan Williams reports from Yokadouma on a practice that could create a pandemic
Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Government urged to take abuse more seriously as London study shows 41 per cent are harassed
Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Militant Tuhoe tribe members defiant amid claims race relations had been set back 100 years
Fatal crashes are cyclists' fault, says Boris

Fatal crashes are cyclists' fault, says Boris

Mayor condemned for saying that two-thirds of riders killed on the road were at fault in accidents
Move over Brangelina, this night belongs to Kingston Bagpuize

Move over Brangelina, this night belongs to Kingston Bagpuize

Unlikely community movie beats the stars to get prized Leicester Square premiere
Solved after 33 years? Case of first missing boy shown on milk carton

Solved after 33 years?

Case of first missing boy shown on milk carton
Like mamma used to make: Pizza Pilgrims is proving a word-of mouth sensation

Pizza Pilgrims: Like mamma used to make

A van dispensing purist pizzas is proving a word-of mouth sensation
The supper on its uppers: Why we need to learn to entertain lavishly for less

Supper on its uppers: Entertain lavishly for less

Dinner parties are buckling under the pressures of food snobbery and belt-tightening...
The 10 best summer cookbooks

The 10 best summer cookbooks

From Claudia Roden's The Food of Spain to The Art of Cooking with Vegetables by Alain Passard...
Gorgeous Georgian: Now we can enjoy the cuisine of Russia's fiery neighbour nearer home

Gorgeous Georgian cuisine

The food of Russia's fiery neighbour is among the world's most inventive and original