Ian Karan

Ian Kiru Karan (born Ian Kirupakaran; 17 June 1939) is a Tamil German businessman and politician.

Early life and family Kirupakaran was born on 17 June 1939 at Point Pedro Hospital in northern Ceylon. His family were from Kaddaively near Karaveddy in the Vadamarachchi region. Orphaned at a young age, he was educated at Methodist Girls' High School, Point Pedro and Hartley College. After being expelled from Hartley College in 1955, he, with the help of his church, obtained an athletics scholarship to study in London. Karan had falsely claimed that he was expelled from LSE for participating in Vietnam War protests. He is a Christian.

Career Karan joined Schenker & Co. Ltd, London, a shipping and forwarding subsidiary of a German conglomerate Schenker AG, in 1966 as a management trainee. In 1969 he moved to Switzerland, working as a clerk for the container firm Crowe & Co in Basel. The company, whose worldwide operations were based in Hong Kong, became the fastest growing container leasing company in the world and after four years it became the largest leasing company in Europe. He resigned on 7 March 2011.

Karan established the Ian Karan Auditorium in the Bucerius Kunst Forum and an auditorium for medical students at the University of Hamburg. He was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in June 2007 for his social and cultural work. Karan was a British citizen for over forty years before taking up German citizenship in December 2009, allegedly on the recommendations of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Karan later admitted that Merkel never made such a recommendation.