Sir Ronald Cohen was born in 1945 in Cairo, Egypt. In his interview he remembered a great tolerance between communities. His family left Egypt in 1957 and he studied PPE at Oxford University. In 2003 he founded the Portland Trust for encouraging peace in the Middle East through economics . He credits his background as an Egyptian and as a Jew for allowing him to mediate and have empathy for both sides of the conflict. He was received his knighthood in 2006.