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Three Asians shine in Guardian's Top 100 list

Three Asians have been finalised in the MediaGuardian Top 100 rich list.

52-year old Arun Sarin, the chief executive of Vodafone has entered the Top 100 list as a "new entry" this year. His salary is worth £3.25m (including £1.9m bonus) and his company is estimated at £31.1bn. MediaGuardian has ranked him at number 33.

The second Asian to be a part of the chart is Zarin Patel who is the group finance director of the BBC (non-executive director, BBC Worldwide). The 46-year old is worth £386,000 (including benefits and other remuneration totaling £74,000). She is also new to this year's list and Zarin's huge income puts her at number 49.

The only other Asian to be listed in the Top 100 is Ajaz Ahmed at number 93. Ajaz Ahmed's is the co-founder and chairman of AKQA, which is the world's largest independent digital agency. Ahmed, who previously worked in Apple's marketing department, founded the web design and interactive marketing agency in 1995. AKQA's annual revenue is worth £74m.

Other surprising movers on the Top 100 were Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google who took the pole position as a new entry this year after it was confirmed he was worth £2.5bn. Last year's number 1 Mark Thompson, director general, BBC, took a hit this year due to the below-inflation licence fee settlement and the large number of job cuts. He sits at number three this year.

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation went up to number 2 in this year's list from number 3 last year. His income is worth £12.5m, including a £10m bonus.

ITV's new executive chairman Michael Grade whose salary is estimated at £825,000 sits at number 4 in the list, up from number 7 last year. The BBC former chairman decided the challenge of reviving Britain's biggest commercial broadcaster would be more interesting than overseeing the nascent BBC Trust which he had helped to create.

Editor: Raj Baddhan Source: MediaGuardian
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