Peter Cooper (born August 1960, Salisbury, England) is a British businessman, journalist, and author. He is best known as the former editor-in-chief and partner of the online business news publisher AMEinfo.com, which was sold to Emap plc in 2006 for $27 million. He currently resides between Dubai and Budapest.
Career
Cooper began his journalism career as editor of his school magazine, the Old Wordsworthian, at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury. He subsequently worked in London for 11 years as a financial journalist for business publications including New Civil Engineer, Building, and Construction News. He was twice named IBP Business/Financial Journalist of the Year, notably for securing a global scoop on the privatization of Russian real estate, and was runner-up for the BPA Newsletter Editor of the Year.
In 1996, Cooper moved to Dubai to become the launch editor of Gulf Business magazine for Motivate Publishing. He returned briefly to the UK in 1999 to write his first book, Building Relationships, The History of Bovis 1885–2000.
In late 1999, after observing the success of a financial website in Australia, Cooper returned to Dubai to develop a similar concept. This became AME Info, a news and business information website. HSBC Private Equity Middle East became a significant shareholder in March 2005, and in July 2006 the site was wholly acquired by Emap plc for $27 million.
Cooper launched the financial commentary website arabianmoney.net in 2010 and the investment newsletter ArabianMoney. He published two additional books: Opportunity Dubai (2008) and Dubai Sabbatical (2010). He was a regular columnist for The National, Abu Dhabi's English-language newspaper, before retiring from that role in June 2019 to focus on writing. His most recent book, Escape to Budapest: Moving to Europe's Coolest Capital, was published in May 2021. He became a UAE Golden Visa holder in 2022.
Education and Personal Life
Cooper attended Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury. He studied Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at Trinity College, Oxford University, where he served as chairman of the Oxford Student Liberal Society during the same term that William Hague was president of the Oxford University Conservative Association. He also studied French in Tours and La Rochelle, France, and later worked as an administrative trainee in the Development Department of the European Commission in Brussels.
Bibliography
- Building Relationships, The History of Bovis 1885–2000 (Cassell & Co, 2000) ISBN 978-0-297-82533-3
- Opportunity Dubai, Making a Fortune in the Middle East (Harriman House Ltd, 2008) ISBN 978-1-905641-97-0
- Dubai Sabbatical, The Road to $5,000 Gold (Createspace, 2010) ISBN 978-1-4505-6508-0
- Escape to Budapest, Moving to Europe's Coolest Capital (2021) ISBN 9798709561588
Note: There is also a separate individual named Peter Cooper (1970–2022), an American country music journalist, Grammy-nominated musician, and senior director at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee. The two are distinct figures.
