About Peter Cruddas

Early Life

Peter Cruddas was born in 1953 on the Bracklyn Court Estate, Hackney. His father worked at Smithfield Market while his mother was a cleaner. Throughout his childhood Peter was a member of the Boy Scouts, a club which taught him lessons in self-discipline and self-confidence.

Career

Peter attended Shoreditch Comprehensive School. He left at the age of 15 with no qualifications to take a job as a telex operator for Western Union in the City of London. He subsequently went on to work in foreign currency trading rooms for various banks, including Marine Midland. By 1989, Peter had become the head foreign exchange dealer at the City of London branch of the Jordanian-based Petra Bank, and left in the same year to start his own business, CMC Markets. Since then, CMC has become a leading provider of online retail financial services, enabling clients to trade a broad range of financial instruments through its award-winning Next Generation trading platform. At its height, the company was worth an estimated £1.5 billion.

Politics

Peter is a large donor to the Conservative Party and served as Party Treasurer from June 2011 to March 2012. He was a member of the Board of Vote Leave, the organisation that successfully campaigned for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. Peter was also a major donor to the campaign.

Peter became a member of the House of Lords on the 2nd of February 2021, becoming Baron Cruddas of Shoreditch.

Personal Life

Peter attributes much of his success to the support of his loving wife, Fiona.

In December 2006, Peter founded the ‘Peter Cruddas Foundation’. The foundation has a simple aim of helping disadvantaged and disengaged young people in society. The foundation provides support programmes for young people aged 16-30 to pursue pathways to education, training and employment with the ultimate goal of helping them become financially independent. Since 2006, over £16 million has been donated to nearly 250 charities.

Aside from the Peter Cruddas foundation, Peter is the largest individual donor to the Duke of Edinburgh International Association and a board member of the Prince’s Trust. He has also been a long supporter of the Royal Opera House and the Royal Ballet and since 2012 has sat on the Board of the Royal Opera House.

Peter is a keen golf player and a loyal, if not patient, Arsenal F.C. supporter.