After graduating from Cambridge University, Jonathan Feroze founded and edited the bi-lingual business newspaper,Encuentro, published by The Mexico City News, while also corresponding for The Sunday Times. Richard Londesborough graduated from Exeter University, having had a one-year stint as a sports reporter in Tehran, before becoming a business journalist and foreign correspondent in Mexico, where he first met Jonathan.
On the back of the Third World Debt crisis, triggered first by Mexico, Jonathan and Richard hit on the idea of launching Latin America Monitor in 1984, a macro and political risk information service for businesses and banks trading with the region. Once they had grasped how the publishing model worked and could be scaled, they re-branded as Business Monitor International and successfully launched information services for Asia, the Middle East, East & Central Europe and Africa.
BMI today provides political, economic, financial and industry analysis and forecasts on 175 markets to multinationals, banks, governments and multilateral organisations in 140 countries – for which BMI received the Queen’s Award for Exports in 1997.
BMI is one of the fastest growing companies in its space and, in 2009, Spectrum Equity Investors made a substantial equity investment in the company. In March 2014, BMI was acquired by the credit rating agency, Fitch Group. Both Richard and Jonathan now serve as non-executive directors on the board of the newly created Fitch Information Services (FIS).