Nadhim Zahawi was born in Baghdad to Kurdish parents in 1967. His family immigrated to the UK when he was 9 and he grew up in South West London and rural East Sussex. A lifelong entrepreneur, in 2000 he founded YouGov, a leading market research company which has since become famous for the accuracy of its polling data. In 2010 he was elected as Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon.