much of his life in England and France. Business activities Educated at Millfield school in Street, Somerset, Prince Abbas Hilmi pursued his higher studies at Christ Church, Oxford. He worked for a discount house, a bank and an insurance broker before joining Grieveson Grant & Co. in 1968. He remained with Grieveson Grant & Co., one of the City's top stockbrokers, until 1981. In 1970, he made history by becoming the first foreign member of the London Stock Exchange, his election having been rendered possible by a change of Rule 21, which had previously restricted membership to British citizens. After leaving Grieveson Grant & Co., Prince Abbas Hilmi became a general manager of Schroder Asseily & Co. (1981–1983), and then Chairman of Hilmi and Associates (1983–1986), where he was mostly engaged in financial management activities and project finance assignments. After spending three years in London as Vice-President of Kidder, Peabody & Co. (1986–1989), he joined the Concord Group in 1989, only one year after its establishment. He was part of the three-member team that launched the Concord Group's Cairo office in 1994. Since then, Egypt has become the group's main focus area, with more than half of the assets it manages ($2.8 billion out of $3.4 billion) being invested in Egyptian securities. Concord is currently among the largest asset management firms in Egypt. One of the funds it manages, the Egypt Investment Company Ltd, has been repeatedly ranked by the International Herald Tribune as the top performing fund in the world. Prince Abbas Hilmi still works for Concord, where he holds the position of Senior Managing Director. Cultural activities Since his return to Egypt in 1994, Prince Abbas Hilmi has devoted considerable time to the conservation of his family's architectural legacy. He was instrumental in providing the funds necessary for the 2004–2008 renovation of his great-grandfather Tewfik Pasha's mausoleum, where he has reserved a burial plot for himself. In 2006, he founded the Friends of Manial Palace Museum Association, which seeks to preserve the palace of his granduncle Prince Muhammad Ali. Marriage and children In 1969, Prince Abbas Hilmi married Mediha Momtaz (born 1945). The religious ceremony was performed in Istanbul on 1 June, and the civil marriage took place at the Kensington Register Office in London on 20 June. Mediha is a maternal granddaughter of Ahmad Midhat Abbas Yeghen, a descendant of one of the sisters of Muhammad Ali