Saatchi

Iraqi-born British advertising executives and founders of Saatchi & Saatchi plc in 1970, which became one of the world's largest advertising agencies with a series of US acquisitions. Following a boardroom coup in 1994, the brothers set up a new agency in 1995, M&C Saatchi. Maurice is a UK Conservative Party peer (since 1996) and Charles is a patron of the arts, promoting the work of contemporary artists, including English artists Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.

The brothers were born in Baghdad, Iraq, and emigrated to the UK in 1947 to escape growing anti-Semitism in Iraq. Charles was educated at Christ's College, Finchley, London, and left school at 17; Maurice graduated from the London School of Economics with a BSc Econ. Charles was a copywriter and had started his own consultancy (Cramer Saatchi) and Maurice went into publishing before they jointly formed a new advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, in 1970 – hiring friend and UK public relations guru Tim Bell and UK advertising executive Martin Sorrell. Maurice was said to be the financial brains and Charles the creative genius in the partnership.

Maurice was elevated to the peerage in 1996 and has since served terms as Conservative Party spokesman for the Treasury and the Cabinet Office in the House of Lords. He was also co-chairman of the party from 2003–05. His publications include Happiness Can't Buy Money (1999), The Bad Samaritan (2000), and The Science of Politics (2001).

In 2001, Charles, who has created one of the largest collections of contemporary art in the world, organized a controversial exhibition of photographs of children.