About Michael Levy, Baron Levy
Michael Abraham Levy, Baron Levy (born 11 July 1944), is a British life peer and former chartered accountant who was chairman and CEO of a large independent group of music companies. A long-standing friend of former prime minister Tony Blair, Levy was the chief fundraiser for the Labour Party under Blair and spent nine years as Blair's special envoy to the Middle East. Levy now acts as a consultant for a number of companies and is also chairman of a finance company. He is also the president of Sense and Sense International, Jewish Care, Barnet and Southgate Colleges, Jewish Free School (JFS), Jewish Lads' and Girls' Brigade (JLGB), Etz Chaim Jewish Primary School, and Mathilda Marks-Kennedy Jewish Primary School (MMK). He was previously president of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust and president of Volunteering Matters. == Early life == Levy was born in the summer of 1944 in what was then still considered a socially deprived neighbourhood of Stoke Newington in North London. He was the only child of Samuel and Annie Levy, devout Jewish immigrant parents of modest means. His father was the head of the synagogue, the shamash in Walford Road shul in Stoke Newington and his grandfather was a rabbi. The family lived in a one-room apartment until he was nine years old and used the public baths. As a child growing up in poverty, he later remembered: “If I got a fruit once a week from Ridley Street market, that was a treat.” Levy was educated at Grocers, later known as Hackney Downs School.
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