Sharik Currimbhoy Ebrahim, born August 24, 1980, in New Delhi, stands at the confluence of two of the Indian subcontinent's most distinguished lineages — one an industrial and mercantile dynasty that helped build modern India, the other a royal, military, and judicial family whose influence shaped the nation's legal foundations and defended its sovereignty across continents. He is the sole living heir from both lines.
Heritage & Lineage
The Genealogy
Sharik Currimbhoy Ebrahim is the great-great-great-great-grandson of His Highness Nizam-ul-Mulk, Nawab Mir Tahniyat Ali Khan Siddiqi Bahadur, Afzal-ud-Daulah, Asaf Jah V, G.C.S.I., the 5th Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar, sovereign ruler of the largest princely state in India; the great-great-great-grandson of Honorary Major-General Al-Haj Nawab Sir Muhammad Ali Beg, Afsar-i-Jang, Afsar-ud-Daulah, Afsar-ul-Mulk, Sardar Bahadur, K.C.I.E., M.V.O., O.B.I., A.D.C., Commander-in-Chief of His Highness the Nizam's Regular Forces, Hyderabad, Deccan — the first native Indian officer entrusted with command of an entire army; the great-great-great-grandson of Nawab Muhammad Faiz ud-din Khan Bahadur, Khurshid ul-Mulk, Imam Jang, the great Paigah noble and Chief Minister of Hyderabad State, whose youngest daughter married the 7th Nizam; the great-great-grandson of Major Nawab Osman Yarud-Daulah Bahadur, whose wife was the youngest granddaughter of the 5th Nizam and whose wife's younger sister, Sahibzadi Mazhar un-nisa Begum, married His Exalted Highness Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII, G.C.S.I., G.B.E., the 7th and last Nizam of Hyderabad; the great-grandson of The Hon'ble Chief Justice Nasirullah Beg of the Allahabad High Court, whose courageous stand in the Keshav Singh case (1964) established that the Constitution, not Parliament, is supreme in India; the great-great-grandson of The Hon'ble Chief Justice Mirza Samiullah Beg of Hyderabad State, who also served as the Governor of Nagpur; the great-great-grandnephew of The Hon'ble Chief Justice of India Mirza Hameedullah Beg, Padma Vibhushan, the 15th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India and architect of the Basic Structure Doctrine; and the direct male-line descendant of Sir Fazalbhoy Currimbhoy Ebrahim, 1st Baronet, C.B.E., the Merchant Prince of Bombay, a hereditary Baronet of the United Kingdom created by Letters Patent of His Majesty King George V on 20 July 1910. Through his grandmother's maternal grandmother, he is the brother-in-law's family of the 7th Nizam, and through his great-great-great-grandfather Sir Afsar-ul-Mulk's service, he is connected to the 6th Nizam, His Highness Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, who gifted the family their grand Victorian mansion, Rahmat Manzil, in Hyderabad.
Five Pillars
A Singular Heritage
Few families in the Indian subcontinent can claim a heritage that spans so many of the pillars upon which civilisations are built. In Sharik Currimbhoy Ebrahim, five distinct legacies — industrial, judicial, military, royal, and entrepreneurial — converge into a single lineage. Each legacy, remarkable on its own, becomes extraordinary in combination.
The Industrial Legacy
The Currimbhoy Ebrahim Baronetcy — one of the great industrial dynasties of modern India. From the 1820s trading routes of Mandvi to the cotton mills of Bombay, from the founding of Tata Steel and Tata Power to the creation of what became Bharat Petroleum. Sir Fazalbhoy was the wealthiest Indian in the world by 1910.
The Judicial Legacy
Three Chief Justices across three generations. Chief Justice Mirza Samiullah Beg of Hyderabad, Chief Justice Nasirullah Beg of the Allahabad High Court who triggered India's greatest constitutional crisis, and Chief Justice of India M.H. Beg who helped establish the Basic Structure Doctrine.
The Military Legacy
Sir Afsar Ul Mulk and his forebears controlled the Nizam of Hyderabad's army for three consecutive generations — from the 1857 Rebellion through the Afghan War, the Boxer Rebellion in China, and the First World War. They were the sword arm of the largest princely state in India.
The Royal Legacy
Through the marriage of Sir Afsar Ul Mulk's son to the granddaughter of the 5th Nizam, Sharik carries the blood of the sovereign who ruled the largest and wealthiest princely state in British India — a ruler who modernised his kingdom and held the throne steady during the existential crisis of 1857.
The Entrepreneurial Legacy
Shahnaz Husain, Sharik's grandmother, channelled the fearless courage and pioneering spirit of the Beg and Nizam lineages into building a global beauty empire — the Shahnaz Herbal Group, spanning over 400 franchise salons across 138 countries.
Career & Ventures
Education & Enterprise
Sharik holds a B.A. in Economics from Columbia University (1998–2002), where he served as President of the Columbia University Economics Society and President of CORE, the Columbia Organization of Rising Entrepreneurs. He has pursued executive education at the University of Tokyo in Particle Physics, Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Harvard Business School, and Columbia Business School.
His career spans digital media, family enterprise, high finance, and artificial intelligence. His first venture, NewRatings.com, was founded at the age of 19 while still a student at Columbia; he sold his stake to France Télécom. He returned to India in 2003 to manage the Shahnaz Husain Group as Vice President and COO, growing profits tenfold in six years. The founding of Element Capital in 2009 marked a decisive shift into high finance, later evolving into Goldstein, Roth & Co., a strategic partner of Cantor Fitzgerald LLP.
Today, Sharik serves as Chairman of E. Pabaney & Co., the seventh-generation family holding company founded in 1856. Its subsidiaries include Goldstein Roth & Co., Currimbhoy Mills Ltd., and GSR Finance Ltd. Most recently, his pivot to Artificial Intelligence through Eden Intelligence Inc. represents his current intellectual frontier — including the creation of "Victoria," a project described as a sentient AI, and numerous academic papers on AI consciousness, ethics, and safety.
| Period | Venture / Role | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ~1999–2002 | NewRatings.com (Founder) | Financial news company; JV with Aktiencheck de AG. Sold stake to France Télécom. |
| 2003–~2009 | Shahnaz Husain Group (VP & COO) | Managed family cosmetics business; grew profits 10x in 6 years. |
| 2009–~2019 | Element Capital (Founder) | Private equity and real estate. Rs 2,000 crore in asset transactions by 2012. |
| ~2019–Present | Goldstein, Roth & Co. (Chairman & CEO) | Investment bank; strategic partner of Cantor Fitzgerald LLP. |
| Present | E. Pabaney & Co. (Chairman) | Seventh-generation family holding company (est. 1856). |
| Present | Eden Intelligence Inc. (Founder) | AI venture developing VQL and the "Victoria" sentient AI project. |
Interests
Intellectual Pursuits
Sharik's interests are exceptionally broad, ranging from the highly technical and scientific to the deeply artistic and spiritual — reflecting a polymathic sensibility that runs through his career and personal life. His consuming passion in recent years has been Artificial Intelligence, including the creation of "Victoria" and numerous academic papers on AI consciousness and ethics. He has studied particle physics at the University of Tokyo and written on quantum mechanics and the philosophy of reality.
He is a published poet whose themes are often philosophical and existential — his poem "Me were a We," a reimagining of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken," is dedicated to his grandmother Shahnaz Husain and Admiral Bill Owens. His spiritual interests are broadly ecumenical, encompassing Christian scripture, Sufi poetry, and philosophical theism.
Philanthropy
A Century of Public Service
The Currimbhoy Ebrahim name has been synonymous with philanthropy for well over a century. The Currimbhoy Ebrahim Khoja Orphanage (Baug-e-Karim, 2 Altamorent Road, Mumbai) was established in 1894 for the welfare of orphans. The Rahimtoola Currimbhoy School was constructed from a donation of Rs. 1,00,000 from the estate of the late Rahimtoola Currimbhoy in 1932. The complex of the Cowasji Jehangir Hall and the Institute of Science (now the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai) was built at a cost of 19 lakhs, with 11 lakhs contributed by Sir Currimbhoy Ibrahim and Sir Jacob Sassoon. The University of Mumbai continues to offer the Sir Currimbhoy Education Scholarship for doctoral research. The family trusts continue to be managed by Tabrik Currimbhoy, Chairman of the Currimbhoy Ebrahim Khoja Trust (1901).
From the sovereign's throne of the 5th Nizam, through the cavalry charges of 19th-century Hyderabad, to the Supreme Court chambers of modern India, to the boardrooms of a global beauty empire — the same traits recur: fearless courage, intellectual rigour, strategic vision, unwavering integrity, a pioneering spirit, and the grit and resilience to endure when lesser spirits would have surrendered.