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 Tory candidate Newmark. |
"The people were tired of Conservatives--not conservatism," was the defiant reaction of Tory candidate Brooks Newmark '80, M.B.A. '84, in the wake of the Labour Party's landslide victory in Britain's general election on May 1. "The British people wanted a change of blood--not of principles," the Conservative nominee for the Newcastle Central district said.
Newmark, who is the first known candidate of American parentage in years to stand for Parliament from a major party, has spent nearly equal portions of his life in the United States and the United Kingdom. In 1967 his family moved to England, where he was enrolled in Bedford, a public school. There his interests in debating and British politics were fired. Socially, however, he found himself shunned by his schoolmates because of his American accent and attitudes.
At Harvard he once again found himself an outsider--this time for the English accent and tastes he had acquired--but, happily, found himself welcomed for these differences. Embracing his Englishness, he avidly participated in cricket and teas and rugby. "Harvard took great pride in encouraging individuality," Newmark recalls, "and it encouraged my particular, somewhat idiosyncratic, individuality. It was the most important experience of my life."
Following graduation, Newmark studied at Oxford and began working his way up the ladder of Conservative politics as a member of the Oxford Conservative Association. He was also active in the Oxford Union, which he represented on a debate tour of the United States, recusing himself from debating Harvard. Then he attended Harvard Business School and went to work in New York City and London for Shearson/Lehman American Express before moving to his family's commodities-trading business. Today he and Stephen Julius, M.B.A. '88, are partners in the London-based Stellican Group, which, in conjunction with another firm, acquires British- and European-based businesses.
But politics continues to be Newmark's overarching passion. As chairman of the Conservative association in his home London constituency of Southwark and Bermondsey, which used to have the smallest membership in all of England, Newmark doubled the roll of party faithful. Then, last year, he was named to the party's list of approved parliamentary candidates and successfully applied to the Conservative association of Newcastle Central to stand for election from that district.
Newmark says he's been both sobered and rejuvenated by his electoral experience. He relished going door to door, meeting the people of Newcastle and hearing their problems. "When you see how people live, the responsibility you're taking on in running for public office really hits home," he says.
Although Newmark recently won another race--to become president of the Harvard Club of London--he concedes that the general election was a devastating Tory loss. But he says that the defeat "also clears the way for the party to modernize itself--and creates a lot of opportunities for younger Conservatives like myself. We will be back," he vows in Churchillian tones, "and so will I."
~ Gordon F. Sander