Ness Wadia

Ness Nusli Wadia (born 30 May 1971) is an Indian businessman. Wadia is the managing director of Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation, a company which has holdings in most of the Wadia Group subsidiaries, including an indirect majority stake in Britannia Industries. He was the Joint Managing Director of Bombay Dyeing, the flagship company of the Wadia Group, till March 2011 when he stepped down from the post. Wadia is a co-owner of the Indian Premier League cricket team Punjab Kings.

Early life Ness Nusli Wadia was born into a Parsi family in Mumbai, India. His parents are businessman Nusli Wadia and former airhostess Maureen Wadia. He has a younger brother, businessman Jehangir Wadia. He is the grandson of businessman Neville Wadia and his wife, Dina Wadia. His grandfather Neville was the son of Sir Ness Wadia who played an important role in turning the city of Bombay into one of the worlds largest cotton gin trading centers during the late 19th century, while his grandmother Dina was the only child of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father and the first Governor General of Pakistan, and his wife Rattanbai Petit was a member of the Petit family.

After completing his education at The Cathedral & John Connon School as well as Lawrence School in Himachal Pradesh, and then at Millfield School in the UK. Wadia studied international relations at Tufts University near Boston, Massachusetts, and then went on to do his MSc in Engineering Management at University of Warwick.

In 1998, he took a leave of absence to complete his master's degree in Science of Engineering Business Management from the University of Warwick with a thesis titled "Leading to Success in India". After receiving his master's degree in 2001, he returned as Deputy Managing Director of Bombay Dyeing and was later promoted to Joint Managing Director. The group paid $76 million to acquire the franchise, and named the team Kings XI (Eleven) Punjab, later on changed to Punjab Kings.

Board positions Wadia has served as Managing Director of Bombay Burmah Trading Company Limited. Wadia has been a trustee of Sir Ness Wadia Foundation, and other charitable trusts within the Wadia family, and a board member of Wadia Hospitals.

Personal life Wadia dated Bollywood actress Preity Zinta from February 2005 until 2009, and the couple were subject to intense media scrutiny.

His name was later linked to actress Ameesha Patel. The two reportedly met at a popular gym, became friends, and eventually started dating. According to some reports, Ness often sent gifts to Ameesha during their relationship.

On 13 June 2014, Zinta filed a complaint with the Mumbai police against Wadia alleging he had attacked her at an IPL match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 30 May.

He was sentenced to two years in jail for possession of 25 gm of cannabis resin in 2019 by a Japanese court which was suspended for five years.

Wadia helped the state of Sikkim by donating supplies during COVID-19 pandemic. He has been noted to be supportive of the LGBTQ community.