After forty years as an entrepreneur working in both the UK and the US he is currently the Chairman of BB Holdings and OneSource Inc and an active investor in new companies and ideas.

Lord Ashcroft also supports a wide range of charities internationally. He is the Founder and Chairman of Crimestoppers (the UK crime fighting charity). He is the Chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University and the Chairman of Trustees of ADT College, now Ashcroft Technology Academy in south London and of The Ashcroft School in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean. Other charities supported in the UK include NSPCC (the National Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children), the Disability Foundation, RAFT (the Restoration of Appearance and Function Trust), Cliff Richard Tennis Foundation, The Stroke Society and the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association and in the US The Carter Center and Cleveland Clinic.

In December 2005, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party by David Cameron, with special responsibility for the Target Seat campaign and opinion research polling.

In 2002 he was appointed Deputy Treasurer and in April 2007 was elected Treasurer of the International Democrat Union (IDU), a working association of over 80 Conservative and like-minded political parties from across the world.

Between 1998 – 2000 he was the Belizean Ambassador to the United Nations.

In 2000, he was knighted and became a Member of the House of Lords (Lord Ashcroft of Chichester, KCMG).