Lee Cook Signs for QPR....."Richest Owners:" Profiling QPR's Lakshmi Mittal....Helping Disabled Kids

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QPR Official Site - EXCLUSIVE: COOK RETURNS TO W12
- Queens Park Rangers Football Club is delighted to announce the permanent signing of Lee Cook.
- The 26 year-old has put pen to paper on a three-and-a-half year deal at Loftus Road, after the R's agreed an undisclosed fee with Fulham for his services.
- Having left the R's to join the Cottagers in the summer of 2007, fans favourite Cook returned on loan at the start of the season. He has since gone on to make 26 appearances in all competitions, scoring one goal.
- Speaking exclusively to www.qpr.co.uk, Cook expressed his delight at sealing a dream return to W12: "Everyone knows QPR are my Club and I'm delighted to be back here.
- "This Club is really going places and I'm just delighted to be part of what we all hope will be a very successful chapter in its history."
Cook added: "I feel as though I'm getting back to my best and I can't wait for the second half of the season.
- "We're in a great position to mount a charge for promotion and as a boyhood fan, it would be a dream to get this Club back to where it belongs in the Premier League."
- R's boss Paulo Sousa added: "Lee is an integral part of our future plans and we are delighted to have him here on a permanent contract.
- "He's proven at this level, has great quality and gives us excellent options in the attacking third of the pitch." QPR


FourFourTwo Team - So who is this Lakshmi Mittal, then?

If QPR investor Lakshmi Mittal wants something, money is no object.
- When he wanted Bernie Ecclestone’s home in Kensington Palace Gardens in 2004, he bought it for £57 million. When his daughter got married that same year, he sent out silver-encased, 20-page invitations and rented a 17th-century French chateau to host the ceremony, a total cost of more than £30 million.
- Extraordinary stories of Mittal’s wealth – currently rated at an Abramovich-dwarfing £12.5 billion – are matched only by the tale of his rise from a small town in the Indian state of Rajasthan to No.2 on FourFourTwo’s football rich list.
- He was born in 1950 in the small town of Sadulpur, into a family that wasn’t particularly well-to-do. In his early years he lived with an extended family of 20, living and sleeping on bare floors. Not an auspicious start for a young boy named after the Hindu goddess of wealth.
- Mittal: From pavement to penthouse
-However, his father Mohan worked for one of India’s top pre-independence industrial houses, before moving to Calcutta and becoming a partner in a steel company. In 1976, the Mittal family struck out alone, founding the Mittal Steel Company, with Lakshmi in charge of establishing its international arm.
- He had a knack for taking run-down and loss-making units and converting them into flourishing, profitable businesses. By 1994 he had become extremely successful in his own right, so after a rift with the family, he split from them, moved to London and took exclusive charge of the international wing of Mittal Steel.
- Ever since, there’s been no looking back for Lakshmi. Today, his ArcelorMittal company is the single largest steel producer in the world, with a presence in 60 countries. Its total assets were valued at $133.6 billion in 2007, and even after the impact of the global economic crisis it remains one of the richest companies in the world – hardly surprising, given that its market share is nearly three times that of its nearest competitor.
- The darling of India, where he is heralded as a national hero, Mittal – now the third richest man in the world, behind only Warren Buffet and Bill Gates – is renowned for his opulent lifestyle as much as his business. He decorated the house in Kensington, which nestles between the Palace and the Sultan of Brunei’s pad, with marble from the same quarry that supplied the Taj Mahal.
- So, is Kaka en route to Loftus Road? Don’t hold your breath. Although Mittal is worth £12.5 billion, he has only invested £200,000 in QPR, a small fraction of the £14m paid by other mega-rich investors Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore.
- Having only invested what amounts to pocket change, it could be that Mittal is – for now, at least – merely keeping his hand in, with his son-in-law Amit Bhatia keeping an eye on things as the club’s vice-chairman.
- For now, Mittal will be concentrating on business closer to home. Although still the world leader, AcelorMittal has had a terrible second half of 2008: stock market turmoil and fears over steel demands slashed an eye-watering 70 percent off its value in just five months.
- However, even with the family stake having plunged from £33bn to £9.7bn, he’s hardly likely to turn to busking outside Shepherd’s Bush station. He may be a silent partner at the moment, but if the man with the third deepest pockets in the world decides to step up the game, there’s no telling how far he might take QPR. FourFourTwo

- See FourFourTwo's Richest Owners List

- Four Four Two Comparison to Richest Owners List of 2003


London Informer/Deva Gilroy Sen - Minibus donated to Jack Tizard school
- A school for children with severe learning disabilities has been given a much-needed minibus and has also been working with the BBC.
- Jack Tizard School in South Africa Road, Shepherd's Bush, helps youngsters aged between two and 19. Its pupils can now travel in style after receiving a 17-seater minibus.
- The vehicle was donated by a charity called the Variety Club, a sponsor called Russell Trew, and Queens Park Rangers Football Club.
But this is not the only good news for the school, which plans to build a new hydrotherapy pool early this year.
For an eight-week period last year, 14 BBC employees went to the school to interact with pupils, taking part in games and activities that help them learn new social skills.
Headteacher Cathy Welsh thought the scheme was a huge success.
She said: "I am eternallygrateful to them for giving up their own free time. It has been lovely to see them playing, interacting and developing strong relationships with our pupils.
"I hope that this partnership goes from strength to strength in the coming years."
The project was part of BBC Outreach, a scheme that promotes responsible business.
One of the things it does is to develop links between the BBC and the community
London Informer