Indian-origin charity worker collects honour from Buckingham Palace

London, December 3

An Indian-origin businessman and charity worker has collected his Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) honour at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London.

Mohan Mansigani, who is from north London, was conferred the honour for charitable services to health care in the late Queen Elizabeth II’s 2021 Birthday Honours list in June last year. The trustee of the St John Ambulance charity collected the OBE from Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, St John’s Ambulance Commandant-in-Chief (Youth).

“I have been lucky enough to give something back to the country that has given me so much through my work at St John and the Migration Museum,” said Mansigani, who is also a Fellow of the UK’s Institute of Chartered Accountants and joined St John Ambulance’s board six years ago.

“As the son of immigrants and as a boy from Islington, being honoured in this way is beyond my wildest dreams. I would like to dedicate this award to my wife Renu Mansigani who has selflessly taught young children human values over the last 20 years through the Mill Hill Sai Centre and is truly worthy of recognition,” he said.

Mansigani is known as a creative finance director with extensive private equity experience who has played a key leadership role in establishing Casual Dining Group, previously known as Tragus, which operated popular UK restaurant brands such as Café Rouge and Strada.

“My father came to London in 1951 with the aim of supporting his family back in India, thinking that he would return as soon as he achieved this goal. In the event he stayed and, from humble beginnings, built a successful business and raised a young family,” Mansigani tells St John Ambulance – a charity providing first aid and emergency medical services primarily through volunteers.

“I was the first in my family to go to university and went on to qualify as a chartered accountant. From there I had a career as finance director of a number of restaurant chains including Costa Coffee and Cafe Rouge,” he said.

Following the successful sale of his last business, Mansigani has been able to work with not-for-profit groups and he has been finance trustee at St John Ambulance since July 2016. The charity said his expertise was critical when St John Ambulance’s main sources of income were halted by the covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.

The businessman played a key role in securing funding to maintain St John’s financial viability and enable the charity’s teams – including almost 30,000 new vaccination volunteers – to support the state-funded National Health Service and local communities by delivering more than 1.6 million hours of activity.