Shiv Shankaran Nair

Shiv Shankaran Nair is a British Asian entrepreneur and political advisor. He was born in August 1961, in Kerala, India into a Nair family. He currently resides in Malta where his company is based.
He is the owner and CEO of British Borneo Holdings but is better known for facilitating major infrastructural contracts for Chinese contractors in Africa and Latin America. This included the 2011 proposal to link the east and west coasts of Colombia with a $6 billion USD railway line.
Early life
Nair was born in August 1961 into the Nair family, in Kerala, India. He finished his schooling at the Don Bosco College. He then obtained a Post Graduate degree in Business Studies, specializing in political risk, from the Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow.
Career
Early career (1990-2003)
Nair started his career as a sovereign debt dealer at the Equatorial Bank plc. in London. In 1990 he became Head of procurement at the Nigerian Government's procurement arm in London, known as the ADPLA.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Nair became the first foreign advisor for the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan.
In the years following this appointment he worked in different advisory roles with numerous governments of other Central Asian FSU countries. These included Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Azerbaijan. These on going roles, allowed Nair to establish close connections with the new leaders of these countries following the breakup of the Soviet Union. During this period he also became fluent in Russian.
Energy advisor (2004-present)
Nair's career since 2004 has been heavily involved in China's expansion into Africa and Latin America. He has been linked to some of the largest Chinese funded infrastructure projects in Africa, and was later dubbed "China's secret weapon in Africa" by The Economist.
In 2008, it was speculated that Nair had acted as mediator in the sale of Oman's share of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium to Transneft of Russia for US$710 million.
In 2011, Nair met with President Juan Santos of Colombia, with mandates from the presidents of China Railways and China Harbour Engineering. In the meeting he conveyed a Chinese offer to finance a US$6 billion railway line connecting Colombia's Atlantic and Pacific coasts. It was later reported that the offer was declined after pressure from the United States.
In the same year, Nair was involved advising Poly Energy, a subsidiary of the China Poly Group Corporation, in an abortive takeover bid for the Kurdistan focused Turkish E&P company Genel Energy. Poly Energy's offer of US$2 billion was outbid by Vallares.
In Nair's recent career he was named by The People's Daily as the secret mediator in a dispute between the government of Niger and CNPC of China, over the Agadem block.
In 2013, Nair was appointed advisor to the Government of Malta on FDI. Nair was said to have played an important behind the scenes role, that led to Malta being awarded the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) for a second time in a decade. Transcripts of illegally intercepted conversations that were made by the Sri Lankan government during CHOGM were leaked to The Sunday Leader. The Mauritian Prime Minister, Navin Ramgoolam, who was to host CHOGM 2015 pulled out of the running due to disagreements within the Mauritian coalition government at the time. Nair was tipped off by sources close to the Mauritius PM and alerted the Maltese PM, who wrongfooted several African states also vying for the honour and secured CHOGM 2015 for Malta. Nair was said to have influenced South African support, changing their vote from Botswana to Malta. The change in support led Botswana to withdraw from the running and Malta won the final vote unanimously.
At The 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, held in Malta, where a new Secretary General was elected by the attending Heads of State, Nair was The Chief Campaign Manager for Bernard Membe, the former foreign minister of Tanzania. However Membe was forced to withdraw his candidature, after the new Tanzanian President John Magufuli refused to back a potential domestic political opponent. At this point it would appear that Nair switched his support and those of several of the Pacific and African countries he had influence with, to Baroness Patricia Scotland of Dominica.
Controversies
In 1997, Nair was the non-executive director of a British company given an administrative debarment by the World Bank, for operating a cartel on Bank funded projects and was restricted from participating in any World Bank contracts for his role as the company's director. Nair flatly denied the allegations and attempted to take the World Bank to court. However, the Bank refused to attend any court hearing citing diplomatic immunity. In 2000 the Isle of Man Financial Services Commission obtained a court order freezing the assets of the company, which had been sanctioned by the World Bank. The freeze order was subsequently overturned by the Isle of Man High Court of Justice, as the World Bank refused to present any documentation justifying their debarment of the company.
In 2013 his role as energy advisor to the Maltese government came under scrutiny from the opposition. As an advisor to the government of Malta, he was responsible for fast tracking the gas purchase agreement between Malta and Qatar and also initiating major Chinese investments into Malta. The Maltese opposition accused Nair of having a close personal relationship with The Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat and were also critical of the fact that he did not declare his World Bank exclusion.
The accusation led to Nair receiving press coverage from the opposition led media in Malta, including nationalist MP Simon Busuttil. The Maltese Prime Minister stated in the media that he refused to be pressurised into terminating Nair's contract.

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