About the Author

Laurie Marsh is a philanthropic entrepreneur with a very wide range of commercial and charitable experience ranging over 65 years. Born in 1930 he lived for 8 years in a couple of rooms above a family haberdashers in Lambeth Walk. After army conscription, Laurie then started a plastics manufacturing business and obtained consent to utilise Walt Disney cartoon characters. At the same time he became a director of a family property company, set up a partnership with West End Travel Group, Wakefield Fortune and carried out his first £1 million project in central Derby in 1961 (eventually creating the third largest public property company in the UK). Laurie has developed and operated hotels, theatres in London and New York, a 150 screen cinema chain, film production, produced over 75 films and founded an international distribution company. He sold the conglomerate business in 1997 and then embarked on multi-million pound philanthropic ventures which are ongoing to this day.