Simon Murray, CBE, is a British businessman, adventurer, author, and former French Foreign Legionnaire. He was the oldest man to reach the South Pole unsupported, at the age of 63.

In 1960, he joined the French Foreign Legion, and served for five years in the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment. He wrote of his experiences in the Legion in the book Legionnaire, published in 1978. On leaving the Foreign Legion he moved to Hong Kong where he worked for Jardine Matheson for fourteen years. After which, he left to start his own company, Davenham Investments, a project advisory company.

In 1984 Davenham was sold to Li Ka-Shing and Simon became the Group managing director of Hutchison Whampoa. Whilst CEO of Hutchison, they founded the mobile phone company, Orange, turning it into a global brand. From 1994 to 1998, Simon was the Executive Chairman of the Deutsche Bank Group in Asia.

Simon Murray is currently the Executive Chairman of GEMS, and a board director of the Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd., Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., Wing Tai Properties Ltd., Arnhold Holdings Ltd., Richemont SA, Essar Energy plc, Omnicorp Limited and IRC Limited. He is now chairman of Gulf Keystone Petroleum. He was formerly the chairman of Glencore.

He has been awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) by H.M. The Queen, and the Order of Merit of the French Republic and is a “Chevalier de La Legion d’Honneur”.