Ilyas Khan

Ilyas Khan KSG (born 1962) is a British technologist and businessman. He is the founder of Cambridge Quantum Computing.

Early life

Ilyas Tariq Khan was raised in Lancashire (North West England).[1] His grandparents emigrated to Britain in the 1930s. His early schooling was in the old Lancashire Pennine mill towns of Haslingden and then Accrington.[2]

When Khan was at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, he stayed at Netherhall House,[3] an Opus Dei student hall of residence. Although he was born a Muslim whilst at Netherhall House he became interested in Catholicism and especially the work of 20th century theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar [4] and of John Henry Newman.

Business and academic career

Khan is a merchant banker by training and started his career at the London firm of J. Henry Schroder Wagg & Co. Ltd. He was also the owner of the English football team Accrington Stanley[5] and the founder and publisher of the Asia Literary Review.[6]

Khan is the non executive senior partner of Stanhill Capital Partners,[7] a merchant banking business with a focus on natural resources which he founded in 1998, during the 20 years (1989–2009) he spent living and working in Hong Kong. He was also one of the founding directors of Australia-based White Energy Company.

In 2015 Khan founded Cambridge Quantum Computing,[8] and he has also published on the subject of Quantum Information Processing.[9]

He is a Fellow of St Edmund's College, Cambridge[10] and is also a fellow of the Judge Business School, where he is the "Leader in Residence".[11] His special interests include philanthropy and Wittgenstein, and he is a member of the British Wittgenstein Society.

Khan has lectured and published papers on Ludwig Wittgenstein, among other subjects.[12][13]

Philanthropy

Between 2015-2018 Khan served as chairman of the Stephen Hawking Foundation, which was established on the initiative of Professor Stephen Hawking to further the study of Cosmology, Astrophysics and Fundamental Particle Physics and to facilitate research into Motor Neuron Disease / Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (MND/ALS).[14]

Khan served two terms as the chairman of the prominent British charity Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) [15]— the largest organization of its kind in the world, with a presence in over 50 countries.[16]

Khan is the chairman of Topos Institute,[17] a non-profit research institute devoted to shaping technology for public benefit by advancing sciences of connection and integration.

Khan is a patron of the Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst,[18] which aims to make the collections and resources at Stonyhurst College more widely accessible. The project has the support of Lord and Lady Nicholas Windsor, Lord Guthrie, and Lord David Alton.[18]

Roman Catholicism

In September 2015 Pope Francis elevated Khan to a Knight of the Order of St Gregory the Great for his contribution to the Church and community.[19]

In 2015 Khan ranked 21st in The Tablet's list of Britain's most influential lay Catholics.[20][21]

Khan was listed in the Catholic Herald 'Catholics of Today' supplement in November 2019, profiling leading Catholics in a wide range of spheres and industries.[22]

Personal life

Khan is married to Mara Hotung, daughter of Eric Hotung and great-granddaughter of Sir Robert Hotung.

Footnotes
  1. https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/4739507.man-saved-accrington-stanley/
  2. https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/4739507.man-saved-accrington-stanley/
  3. https://opusdei.org/en-uk/article/a-convert-from-islam/
  4. "A Muslim Finds the Catholic Faith…Through Geography and Theology". Archived from the original on 2012-07-17.
  5. "Club Details – Accrington Stanley". accringtonstanley.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22.
  6. "People - Asia Literary Review". www.asialiteraryreview.com. Archived from the original on 2016-08-07.
  7. "Our Team - Stanhill Capital Partners". www.stanhillcapital.com. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22.
  8. "Cambridge Quantum Computing". cambridgequantum.com. Archived from the original on 2015-08-12.
  9. Khan, Ilyas (2016). "Free Will - A road less travelled in quantum information". arXiv:1604.06489 [physics.hist-ph].
  10. "St Edmund's College - University of Cambridge". www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2015-08-22.
  11. "Ilyas Khan". Cambridge Judge Business School. Archived from the original on 2015-10-23.
  12. "En una época en la que crece la especialización, la universidad debe enfatizar los vínculos entre las diferentes disciplinas". www.unav.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-06-02.
  13. "Ilyas Khan - University of Cambridge - Academia.edu". cambridge.academia.edu. Archived from the original on 2018-02-19.
  14. "The Stephen Hawking Foundation | The Stephen Hawking Foundation". 2015-12-20. Archived from the original on 2015-12-20. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  15. "Trustees | Leonard Cheshire Disability". 2014-02-22. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  16. "International | Leonard Cheshire Disability". 2014-02-13. Archived from the original on 2014-02-13. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  17. https://topos.institute/team
  18. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-01-29. Retrieved 2014-02-13.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  19. "Former DHI Vice Chairman Ilyas Khan Knighted by Pope Francis". www.dignitatishumanae.com. Archived from the original on 2016-04-26.
  20. [email protected], The Tablet - w. "Britain's most influential Catholics revealed on The Tablet's Top 100 list". www.thetablet.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2015-07-25.
  21. "Tablet unveils Top 100 Catholics in UK today (2015) - ICN". www.indcatholicnews.com. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24.
  22. https://catholicherald.co.uk/
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