London: Indian-origin Mohan Mansigani has received Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in recognition of his charitable services to healthcare at an investiture in Buckingham Palace. Mansigani is a trustee at St John Ambulance -- England’s leading first aid and health response charity.

“I was truly honored to receive an OBE for charitable services to healthcare at an investiture at Buckingham Palace. I received the award from HRH the Princess Royal,” Mansigani wrote in a LinkedIn post in early December. When St John Ambulance’s main sources of income were halted by the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, Mansigani played a key role in securing funding to main St John’s financial viability and enable the charity’s teams -- including almost 30,000 new vaccination volunteers -- to support the NHS and local communities by delivering more than 1.6 million hours of activity.

“I have been lucky enough to give something back to the country that has given me so much through my work at St John and the Migration Museum,” said Mansigani, who joined St John Ambulance’s board six years ago. “Looking back it seems surreal to think what happened and how we got through it both personally and as an organization. True credit must go to the St John volunteers who at a time when many were scared to leave their homes went out and provided vaccinations across the country,” he added.

Mansigani’s father came to London in 1951 with the aim of supporting his family back in India. He decided to stay back and start a business. “I was the first in my family to go to university and went on to qualify as a chartered accountant. From there I had a career as finance director of a number of restaurant chains including Costa Coffee and Cafe Rouge,” Mansigani said. “As the son of an immigrant, it is beyond my wildest dreams to be honored in this way,” he wrote in the LinkedIn post.

As a finance director with extensive private equity experience, he established Casual Dining Group (previously Tragus), which operated brands such as Cafe Rouge and Strada, as a major UK restaurant business. He also led the business through two private equity transactions including the 267 million-pound sale to Blackstone in 2007. Prior to this he was CFO at Costa Coffee and TGI Friday’s.