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 is Conservative Party treasury spokesman in the House of Lords. He was knighted in 1996 and published his book, The Science of Politics, in 2001.

Also in that year, Charles, who has created one of the largest collections of contemporary art in the world, organized a controversial exhibition of photographs of children. Both brothers guard their privacy; Charles has reportedly not given a media interview for 20 years.