Rhodesia (region) was first used to refer to the region by white settlers in the 1890s who informally named their new home after Cecil Rhodes, the Company's founder and managing director. It was used in newspapers from 1891 and was made official by the Company in 1895. To confuse matters, Southern Rhodesia, which became a self-governing colony of the United Kingdom in 1923, referred to itself simply as "Rhodesia" from 1964 to 1979, and in 1965 unilaterally declared independence under that name. It thereafter briefly renamed itself "Zimbabwe Rhodesia" in 1979. The usage of the term Rhodesia to refer to the historical
Alan Parker (businessman) Alan Parker (businessman) Alan M. Parker (born 31 March 1939) is a British billionaire businessman. Alan M. Parker was born into a modest family in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), the son of a British colonial civil servant. Parker trained as an accountant, and worked for the Hong Kong-based DFS Group. He became DFS's third largest shareholder, and in 1997 when it was taken over by LVMH, Parker received about $840m (£464m) for his 20% stake. Parker also made money investing in hedge funds and high technology. As of 2014, Parker is living in Geneva, Switzerland and has a net worth of