Mr Varkey's company has identified 10 to 15 greenfield sites for new private schools
Sunny Varkey has all the trappings of wealth you would expect from the typical Dubai millionaire. Visitors to the entrepreneur’s luxurious offices might be picked up from the airport in a Bentley, from his fleet of chauffeur-driven cars, and whisked through the thriving metropolis.
On their way, they might spot an extraordinary project taking shape off the coast of the commercial capital of the United Arab Emirates: private man-made islands for the super-rich, one in the shape of a palm, the other resembling a map of the world.
Naturally the headquarters of Global Education Management Systems and the Varkey Group are air-conditioned, just like his new schools, which often come with swimming pools and the latest IT equipment
Now, the Dubai businessman behind Gems, the world’s biggest private schools company, has emerged as the latest high-profile figure to become a sponsor of the Government’s city academies programme.
Mr Varkey’s company Gems, which runs 42 private schools around the world, has brokered a deal with Milton Keynes council to sponsor two academies, the independent state schools, to be opened in 2008. Gems already owns a private school, Bury Lawns, in the town.
It is the latest flirtation by the chairman of Gems with the British state-school sector. Last year Gems purchased 3E's, a non-profit making company set up to manage failing state schools, giving the company direct influence over three secondaries and contracts to advise more than 100 others.
