Dolar Popat, Baron Popat (born 14 June 1953) is a Ugandan-British accountant, businessman and Conservative life peer in the House of Lords. He became a Member of the House of Lords in July 2010 and is the first Gujarati to represent the Conservative Party in the upper house. From January 2013 to March 2015 he served as a Minister of the Crown at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, and the Department for Transport. He was Lord-in-Waiting, with the duties of a party whip. He was subsequently appointed as the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to Rwanda and Uganda in January 2016. Early life Dolar Popat was born in 1953 in Busolwe and was brought up in Tororo, Uganda. He arrived in the UK in 1971 at the age of 17, a year before the expulsion of many Indians from Uganda. Popat sponsored himself through night school at Kilburn Polytechnic by taking on jobs including working as a dishwasher, waiter, and grill chef at a Wimpy burger bar on Kilburn High Road. He later qualified as an Affiliate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in 1977 and went on to practise specialising in business and corporate finance. He diversified into the healthcare sector in the late 1980s and the hospitality sector in the late 1990s, and secured a master franchise with the Intercontinental Hotels Group for Express by Holiday Inn in the UK. On 16 July 2019 (Guru Purnima), Popat unveiled his autobiography, A British Subject: How to Make It as an Immigrant in the Best Country in the World. Career After completing his studies, Popat held a number of positions, including trainee accountant at Rockware Glass and UDT Finance (Barclays). After practising as an accountant in the 1970s, he specialised in business and corporate finance. Popat diversified into the health care sector in the late 1980s and the hospitality sector in the late 1990s, securing a master franchise with the Intercontinental Hotel Group for Express by Holiday Inn in the UK. Politics Popat is an advocate of community cohesion and the importance of reconciling and uniting different cultures under the UK's central democratic process. Before his elevation to the House of Lords, he was an active supporter of the Conservative Party, acting as a party adviser to help engagement with the British Indian community to the Thatcher, Major and Cameron governments. Popat has advocated that the Conservative