Global Policy Forum: A Sustainable Recovery

Born in Liverpool (UK) in 1956, Guy Ryder studied Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge and Latin American Studies at the University of Liverpool. He speaks French and Spanish as well as his mother tongue, English. He started his professional career in 1981 as assistant at the International Department of the Trade Union Congress in London.

From 1985, he held the position of Secretary of the Industry Trade Section of the International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional and Technical Employees (FIET) in Geneva.

In 1988, Guy Ryder became Assistant Director and – from 1993 - Director of the Geneva office of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).

Guy Ryder first joined the International Labour Organization in 1998 as Director of the Bureau for Workers’ Activities and, from 1999, as Director of the Office of the Director-General. It was during this time that the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda was launched and won support from the international community.

In 2002, he was appointed General Secretary of the ICFTU, leading the process of global unification of the democratic international trade union movement. He was elected as first General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) when it was created in 2006. He headed international trade union delegations to high level talks with the UN, IMF, World Bank and WTO and to the G20 Leaders’ Summits.

In September 2010, Guy Ryder came back to the ILO in Geneva as Executive Director, responsible for international labour standards and fundamental principles and rights at work. Among other activities, he supervised the application of ILO Conventions and Recommendations. He also headed several high-level ILO missions to address a range of issues related to labour standards in countries such as Bahrain, Colombia, Fiji, Georgia, Greece, Myanmar and Swaziland.

Guy Ryder was elected as ILO Director-General by the ILO's Governing Body in May 2012 and took office on 1 October 2012. On taking office, he pledged to position the Organization as a determined actor translating principle into action and ensuring that it had the capacity to make a major difference to the working lives of people on all of the continents. To support this he launched a major reform process geared to assuring the ILO’s authority on matters falling within its mandate.Guy Ryder was re-elected as ILO Director-General by the ILO's Governing Body on 7 November 2016 with overwhelming support across the ILO's tripartite constituency. His second term started on 1 October 2017.

Anneliese Dodds is the Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament for Oxford East. She was appointed Shadow Chancellor in 2020.

Alzbeta Klein is the Director General of International Fertilizer Association and former Director and Global Head of Climate Business at International Finance Corporation. In her new role, she will be leading the global fertilizer industry towards creating and supporting productive and sustainable agriculture systems that contribute to a world free of hunger and malnutrition. In her previous roles, Ms. Klein led IFC/World Bank Group’s Climate Business, positioning IFC as a lead investor in green/ESG investments in emerging markets. Prior to this, she led IFC’s Agribusiness investments, Industrial investments, and managed IFC’s $50bn investment portfolio in emerging markets. Ms. Klein received Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Ottawa, Canada, where she also studied for her doctorate; engineering degree from Prague University, Czech Republic; and executive education from Harvard Business School and INSEAD. She holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. She served on a number of agribusiness companies’ boards including Grupo Los Grobo in Argentina, HMH in South Africa, LAAD in Latin America, as well as the New York University Center for Sustainable Business Advisory Board, and currently serves on the Nespresso Sustainability Advisory Board.

Alistair co-founded Dalmore in 2009. He oversees all investment activity within Dalmore and is a member of the Investment Committee. Alistair was responsible for forming the Bazalgette consortium, which successfully bid for the Thames Tideway ‘super-sewer’ under the River Thames and is a non-executive director on the board.
Dalmore has worked extensively to encourage further overseas investment into UK infrastructure assets and to encourage UK pension funds to participate in infrastructure investment, an area where they have tended to lag behind foreign pensions in quantum and risk appetite. Raising £440m (£370m from UK pension funds) for the greenfield Thames Tideway project, is a step in the right direction, but there is significant room for further activity.
Alistair has been involved in a number of other notable transactions while at Dalmore including the investment in significant stakes in Anglian Water, Cadent Case and Cory Riverside.
Alastair has over 20 years’ experience in the infrastructure sector. Between 2005 and 2008, Alistair was a Director at 3i and led the bid to invest in a major US highway PPP project and closed infrastructure transactions in the Netherlands, Malta and Singapore. He was also a member of the team that successfully floated 3i Infrastructure plc on the London Stock Exchange. From 2001 to 2004, Alistair was a Director and shareholder of Noble PFI, following three years with Edison Capital. He led the Noble-backed management buy-out of Edison Capital’s PPP portfolio and, subsequently, managed the sale of the Noble PFI portfolio in 2004. Alistair began his career in 1997 with British Linen Bank, where he spent a year as part of the equity team which closed the deal to build Scotland’s first PPP-financed hospital in 1998. Alistair holds a Bachelor of Engineering honours degree.

Silke Goldberg MA FRSA is an energy and infrastructure partner at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP. Silke chairs the HSF ESG practice. She is a lawyer qualified in Ireland, Germany, England and Wales and France and has extensive experience of advising on climate change, power and gas matters internationally across the entire value chain of the energy sector. She is a professor of energy law with Queen Mary University and has given evidence to parliamentary enquiries on energy market designs and Brexit in the UK and gas market development in the Philippines.

Peter Lacy is the chief responsibility officer and global sustainability services lead at Accenture. He oversees the responsible business agenda across the company, ensuring sustainability is embedded into its client work by design and driving its growing portfolio of Sustainability services offerings, which help clients create value and impact. He is a member of Accenture’s Global Management Committee and leads the company’s relationships with the World Economic Forum and the UN Global Compact.
In his role, Peter works closely with Accenture’s clients and ecosystem partners to help transition industries to low-carbon, net-zero pathways. He collaborates with them to manage their responsible business and sustainability impacts on IT, cloud and software, and to build responsible, transparent, trusted and circular value chains. He also partners with them to equip the future workforce to create shareholder and stakeholder value through better management of environmental, social and governance issues.
Peter also leads Accenture’s corporate initiatives on responsible business and sustainability, supporting the company and its clients in delivering business contributions to achieving the United Nations Global Compact’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Before assuming his current role in December 2020, Peter held various senior leadership positions across Accenture, including leading Strategy practices in Europe and Asia Pacific. He was also the co-founder and global lead of Accenture’s Sustainability services practice in 2008. He has more than two decades of industry experience advising CEOs and senior leaders of companies, governments and international organizations on strategy development, digital transformation, innovation and sustainability.
Peter has five times led the world’s largest CEO study on sustainability for the United Nations Secretary General and the UN Global Compact. He co-led one of the world’s largest research programs on the economic, social and environmental impact of digital transformation for the World Economic Forum (WEF). He serves on the board of the WEF’s Forum of Young Global Leaders and helped found its Task Force on Circular Economy and its Circular Economy Awards. Peter also serves on the board of Aerofarms, an innovative ag-tech business driving sustainable food, and on advisory boards of several universities and not-for-profit organizations.
A regular commentator in the media and speaker at global events, Peter is recognized as a foremost expert on responsible business and sustainability. His expertise extends to areas such as quantifying value of the circular economy, new business models and technologies, and developing sources of growth and innovation for companies and governments. These concepts were introduced in his two international bestsellers, Waste to Wealth (2015) and The Circular Economy Handbook (2020).
Peter joined Accenture in 2000, with brief intervals outside the company leading a think tank and in strategy consulting. He became a managing director in 2017. Peter earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nottingham. He has been a Business Fellow at the University of Oxford since 2010. He has also completed executive programs at Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Cambridge and INSEAD. Peter has lived and worked in Latin America, China and Continental Europe. He is currently based in the United Kingdom.

Nathan is Head of Innovation for Sustainability at Cambridge Consultants; working with ambitious clients to transform their businesses or to pursue new opportunities centred around societal and environmental needs. Nathan’s background is in Product Design Engineering and he has 25 years’ experience of running fast and successful engineering developments. His interests include the development of novel robotics, sensing and control and Machine Learning solutions, applied to applications including Consumer Goods, Construction, Agri-Tech, Transport & Infrastructure and Energy, and in markets right around the globe.

Victoria is a Director of Investor Relations at Dalmore Capital. Dalmore is an independent fund manager that provides institutional investors with access to lower volatility infrastructure assets. Dalmore’s focus is on projects that bring positive socioeconomic and environmental benefits, through the provision of new and/or refurbished infrastructure assets that support the delivery of essential public services. Investing responsibly and paying due consideration to ESG factors is a matter of strategic priority for Dalmore. Victoria has 11 years of experience in the infrastructure sector and before joining Dalmore spent eight years investing in infrastructure funds at Capital Dynamics and UBS Global Asset Management. Prior to that she worked within PwC’s Corporate Finance group focused on infrastructure project finance and in 2010 was seconded by PwC to the World Economic Forum as project manager of the infrastructure initiative. Victoria is Chairperson of Dalmore’s ESG Committee. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacology (Honours) from the University of Bristol and is a Chartered Accountant (CA).

Chi Onwurah is a British Member of Parliament representing Newcastle upon Tyne Central and is also Shadow Minister for Science, Research and Digital.

From 2016-2020 Chi was Shadow Minister for Industrial Strategy and from September 2015-October 2016 Chi was Shadow Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy. From Jan 2013 - Sept 2015 Chi was Shadow Cabinet Office Minister leading on cyber security, social entrepreneurship, civil contingency, open government and transparency. From Oct 2010 – Jan 2013 Chi was Shadow Minister for Innovation, Science & Digital Infrastructure working closely with the Science and business community, with industry on Broadband issues, and on the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill. Chi continues to encourage women in STEM.

Prior to Chi’s election to Parliament in May 2010 she worked as Head of Telecom's Technology at the UK regulator Ofcom focussing on the implications for competition and regulation of the services and technologies associated with Next Generation Networks.

Prior to Ofcom, Chi was a Partner in Hammatan Ventures, a US technology consultancy, developing the GSM markets in Nigeria and South Africa. Previously she was Director of Market Development with Teligent, a Global Wireless Local Loop operator and Director of Product Strategy at GTS. She has also worked for Cable & Wireless and Nortel as Engineer, Project and Product Manager in the UK and France

Chi is a Chartered Engineer with a BEng in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College London and an MBA from Manchester Business School. She was born in Wallsend and attended Kenton Comprehensive School in Newcastle, where she was elected the school’s ‘MP’ in mock elections aged 17.

Chi is a Presidency Member of the Party of European Socialists (PES), and a Fellow of both the Institution of Engineering & Technology (FIET) and the City & Guilds of London Institute (FCGI).

Philip was first elected Member of Parliament for the Ludlow Constituency in May 2005. He was re-elected in 2010, and in 2015, 2017 and 2019 he was re-elected with historic majorities for the constituency. He was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence in September 2012. Following the General Election in May 2015, he was promoted to Minister of State for Defence Procurement at the Ministry of Defence. In July 2016, Philip was appointed Minister of State for Health at the Department of Health, and was reappointed to the same position following the General Election on 8th June 2017. He stepped down as Minister in January 2018. In February 2020, Philip was elected Chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee.

He believes politicians can contribute most to their communities if they have experience of the world beyond politics. He had a twenty year business career before becoming actively involved in politics. He has experience of business both big and small: having worked for investment banks in London, New York and Hong Kong and helping start a bookshop business, Ottakar's, from scratch.

Philip is married with two daughters and two sons, each having been at school in the Ludlow constituency, where he was a Governor for six years. He was brought up on the family farm near Ludlow, for which he has had responsibility since 1987. He lives near Ludlow, which he has regarded as his home town all his life.

He enjoys family life, living in the countryside and keeping busy

Business Experience

Inger Andersen is Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. Between 2015 and 2019, Ms. Andersen was the Director-General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Ms. Andersen has more than 30 years of experience in international development economics, environmental sustainability, strategy and operations. She has led work on a range of issues including agriculture, environmental management, biodiversity conservation, climate change, infrastructure, energy, transport, and water resources management and hydro-diplomacy.
Between 1999 and 2014, Ms. Andersen held several leadership positions at the World Bank including Vice President of the Middle East and North Africa; Vice President for Sustainable Development and Head of the CGIAR Fund Council.
Prior to her 15 years at the World Bank, Ms. Andersen worked 12 years at the United Nations, first on drought and desertification, beginning with the UN Sudano-Sahelian Office. In 1992, she was appointed UNDP’s Water and Environment Coordinator for the Arab Region.
Ms. Andersen holds a Bachelors from the London Metropolitan University North and a Masters in Development Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Alex Sobel was elected in 2017 and quickly made a name for himself as a leading voice for transformative climate policy.
In 2019 he set up the Net Zero All-Party Parliamentary Group to help secure a low carbon and clean industrial and economic future for the UK, embed zero carbon solutions and accelerate net zero growth, innovation and global influence.
Alex is particularly interested in the role devolution can play in supporting regional economic development to lay the foundation for green growth, green jobs and zero/low carbon local industrial strategies. He was appointed the Shadow Minister of Tourism and Heritage last year, and believes that tourism and heritage could play a crucial role in a driving a green recovery from covid-19.
Alex has attended multiple COP international climate change events, sits on the Environmental Audit Committee and is an Executive Committee Member for SERA, Labour's Environment Campaign.”

Mayor Marvin Rees was elected in May 2016. He is a Yale World Fellow and graduate of Operation Black Vote who has worked and studied in the UK and the US. He is a former BBC journalist, Public Health manager, co-founder of the City Leadership Programme and has developed the One City Plan for Bristol.

Steve Fletcher is Professor of Ocean Policy and Economy, and Director of the Sustainability and the Environment research theme, at the University of Portsmouth. Professor Fletcher leads the University of Portsmouth's Revolution Plastics initiative, driving interdisciplinary research and innovation to solve challenges in production, use and disposal of plastics. He is also Ocean Lead of the UN International Resource Panel, and works extensively with the UN family of ocean and biodiversity conventions, governments, agencies, businesses, universities and a wider network of international conservation organisations.

Cesar Sanches is Director of Strategic Marketing and Sustainability at Valgroup. He is based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and oversees a number of projects to support the development of a robust circular economy including groundbreaking mechanical and chemical recycling plants, waste collection and sorting facilities, design optimisation, automation, robotics, AI and sustainable packaging. Cesar has earned his PhD in engineering from the University of Sao Paulo, MSc in Economics from the University of Aberdeen and completed the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) Business Sustainability Management course. He has also worked on major capital projects across the globe whilst living in Scotland, UK.

Steve chairs the ESG Senior Leadership Team at Aviva Investors, and is a member of the CIO Investment Committee. Steve founded Aviva Investors’ Sustainable Finance Centre for Excellence. This Centre seeks to transform capital markets so that they support long term sustainable development. He also co-founded the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark, the World Benchmarking Alliance, the UN Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Coalition. He was also part of the group that helped write the Principles for Responsible Investment.
Steve was appointed to the European Commission High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance, and the UK Green Finance Taskforce, and is also a member of the Financial Stability Board Taskforce on Climate Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD).
Steve started his career at the World Wide Fund for Nature in 1995, where he chaired the business and industry core group and oversaw the ethical investment policy. He also served on the board of the UK Sustainable Investment & Finance association (UKSIF) from 2003 to 2010, serving as its Chairman from 2006.
Steve has a PhD in Sustainable Finance from the University of Surrey. He is an Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at City’s Business School, and also teaches at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. His work became a case study in the Harvard Business School MBA in 2012.
Steve has been nominated by the Financial Times as one of their ‘warriors of climate change’. He has received awards from Brummell, the Chamber of Commerce, the City of London, Financial News, the United Nations Foundation, Yale and Harvard. He has also spoken at the World Economic Forum, Columbia University, the London School of Economics, the Singapore Exchange and 10 Downing Street.

John Glen was appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister on 9 January 2018. He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport from 14 June 2017 to 8 January 2018. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Philip Hammond from July 2016 until June 2017. John Glen MP was first elected to Parliament as the MP for Salisbury in 2010. He previously worked for the Eric Pickles and Sajid Javid as a Parliamentary Private Secretary.

Bill Weihl is the Founder and Executive Director of ClimateVoice, a non-profit initiative launched in February 2020 that is mobilizing the workforce to encourage companies to go “all in” on climate - especially in their use of their voice and influence to support public policy, everywhere they operate.
From 2012 to 2018, Bill was Director of Sustainability at Facebook.  He built a team that directs work on sustainability and energy efficiency across the company, driving projects to track and reduce the company's environmental footprint in all aspects of its operations.  They also drove cross-industry collaborations, including playing critical roles in RE100 and the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance.  
Prior to Facebook, Bill was Green Energy Czar at Google, where his team pioneered Google’s work to buy clean energy for its data centers, and helped found the Climate Savers Computing Initiative with Intel and WWF.

Claire O’Neill entered politics in 2007 after a transatlantic career in consulting and finance, initially as a policy advisor to George Osborne, the then Shadow Chancellor and then as the Conservative MP for the Devizes Constituency from 2010 - 2019.
She served in several Ministerial positions before becoming Climate Change Minister and then attending the UK Cabinet as Minister for Energy and Clean Growth. Claire wrote and implemented the UK’s Clean Growth Strategy; formed the Green Finance Taskforce; launched the global Powering Past Coal Alliance to end coal-powered electricity generation and negotiated the UK’s Offshore Wind Sector Deal that dramatically dropped the cost of this vital renewable energy source. In 2019 she brought forward the ground-breaking legislation that committed the UK to be a Net Zero emissions economy by 2050 and she also formulated the UK’s successful bid to host the United Nations 2020 Climate Change Conference known as COP26. She served as COP26 President-Designate until she left politics in 2020.
Ranked as one of Bloomberg’s global “Green 30 for 2020”, Claire has now joined the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) as the Managing Director for Climate and Energy,  and Natural Climate Solutions. WBCSD is the leading voice for business sustainability and is a global CEO-led organization drawn from all business sectors and all major economies, representing a combined revenue of more than USD $8.5 trillion and 19 million employees.

Luca Jahier is the former President of the European Economic and Social Committee. Jahier was also previously President of Group III of the EESC (re-elected twice) and member of the EESC Bureau. /p>

Rebecca is South Pole's Director of Sustainable Finance. Rebecca has approximately two decades of holding senior leadership roles in the financial industry. In her previous role, Chief Financial Officer of Sustainable Finance at HSBC Holdings plc, Rebecca oversaw group-wide financial services relating to sustainable finance products, such as sustainability/green bonds, ESG (environmental, social, governance) asset management/private bank funds and commercial lending related to sustainability. In addition, Rebecca was responsible for HSBC's external ESG reporting and investor relations – including the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and corporate reporting on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Rebecca has chaired the European Banking Federation industry SDG working group and has been a member of other advisory groups to progress non-financial reporting, for example, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board and CDP. She holds a BSc in Economics and Politics, a Masters in Sustainability Leadership from University of Cambridge, and is a Chartered Global Management Accountant.

Iain Gulland is Zero Waste Scotland’s founding Chief Executive and was the Programme Director of the predecessor programme, WRAP Scotland. 
Previously Iain worked with initiating recycling systems in the public, private and third sectors and led the Community Recycling Network, Scotland until 2008.
Iain has recently been appointed President of the Association of Cities and Regions for Resource Management (ACR+) and is a member of several Scottish Government Programme Boards including those covering low carbon and manufacturing.
Iain was named the ‘most influential person in the UK waste and resource efficiency sector’ by Resource Magazine (2014) and was granted fellowship of the Chartered Institution of Waste Management in 2016.

Councillor Jess Miller was elected to the City of Sydney Council as part of the Clover Moore Independent team in 2016.
Part of her motivation for being on Council was to ensure that views of younger people were represented on Council (especially with regard to the 24-hour economy) and that the City continue set an global example of how to deal with the changing climate.
Jess’ key areas of expertise are in environmental systems specifically urban ecology and urban forestry, and local food systems. She is an advocate for a slow city with lots of active and public transport, character, community, sport, colour and creativity.

Jamie Margolin is an 19-year-old Jewish Colombian-American organizer, activist, author, public speaker, and Film & TV student at NYU.
She is co-founder of the international youth climate justice movement called Zero Hour that led the official "Youth Climate Marches" in Washington, DC and 25+ cities around the world during the summer of 2018. Zero Hour has over 200+ chapters worldwide and has been a leading organization in the climate movement. Jamie helps lead Zero Hour in organizing marches, rallys, educational campaigns, strikes, summits, tours, and lobby days, including the "2019 Youth Climate Summit” in Miami Florida and the Youth Climate Lobby Days on Capitol Hill both in 2018 and in 2019.
Jamie is also a plaintiff on the Our Children's Trust Youth v. Gov Washington state lawsuit, Aji P. vs. State of Washington, suing the state of Washington for denying her generation their constitutional rights to a livable environment by worsening the climate crisis.
Jamie is the author of countless thought provoking Op-Eds for various publications such as The New York Times, Teen Vogue, The Washington Post, TIME Magazine, DAZED, Refinery29, and The Guardian. Jamie’s debut book, "Youth To Power: Your Voice and How To Use It,” is out, (you can order the book at www.youthtopowerbook.com) and it serves as a guide to organizing and activism.
Jamie represents Zero Hour at international leadership events like the C40 Mayors summit and the UN Youth Climate Summit, and has gone on several national and international speaking tours, speaking to audiences all over the world about climate justice. In September of 2019 she testified before the US Congress alongside fellow youth activist Greta Thunberg, holding her leaders accountable to taking urgent climate action.
Jamie served as a surrogate for the Bernie Sanders 2020 Presidential Campaign, speaking at several campaign rallies (including the 2020 Tacoma Dome rally to an audience of over 17 thousand people), filming campaign endorsement videos, and doing outreach to get out the vote for Bernie Sanders. She also was one of the youngest Delegates at the 2020 Democratic Convention.
Jamie is one of Teen Vogue’s “21 Under 21” girls changing the world in 2018, One of People Magazines 25 women changing the world in 2018, Fuse TV’s Latina Trailblazer of 2018, one of The Today Show’s 18 under 18 Groundbreakers of 2019, MTV EMA Generation Change winner of 2019, one of the BBC's 100 most influential women of 2019, and one of GLAAD’s 20 under 20 LGBTQ+ people changing the world. She is on the OUT 100 list of 2020.

After a career in the media industry as a journalist and editor, Jocelyn Blériot now manages the Foundation’s relationships with governments and supra-national bodies such as the United Nations, the G7 Resource Alliance, the OECD, and the World Economic Forum.

Philip was first elected Member of Parliament for the Ludlow Constituency in May 2005. He was re-elected in 2010, and in 2015, 2017 and 2019 he was re-elected with historic majorities for the constituency. He was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence in September 2012. Following the General Election in May 2015, he was promoted to Minister of State for Defence Procurement at the Ministry of Defence. In July 2016, Philip was appointed Minister of State for Health at the Department of Health, and was reappointed to the same position following the General Election on 8th June 2017. He stepped down as Minister in January 2018. In February 2020, Philip was elected Chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee.

He believes politicians can contribute most to their communities if they have experience of the world beyond politics. He had a twenty year business career before becoming actively involved in politics. He has experience of business both big and small: having worked for investment banks in London, New York and Hong Kong and helping start a bookshop business, Ottakar's, from scratch.

Philip is married with two daughters and two sons, each having been at school in the Ludlow constituency, where he was a Governor for six years. He was brought up on the family farm near Ludlow, for which he has had responsibility since 1987. He lives near Ludlow, which he has regarded as his home town all his life.

He enjoys family life, living in the countryside and keeping busy.

Business Experience

Philip read Politics, Philosophy & Economics at Oxford University graduating in 1980. He spent eight years at the then leading British merchant bank S.G.Warburg, working in London and New York advising major British and foreign companies on their strategic development. He then worked for two years for James Gulliver Associates, before becoming a partner of Phoenix Securities, a leading adviser to the financial services sector, for whom he worked for 10 years in London and Hong Kong, during which time it was bought by Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, a US investment bank of which he became a Managing Director (one of many).

During his 18 year involvement as co-founder and then Chairman of Ottakar's, eventually acquired by Waterstones, he helped it grow to a business employing over 2,500 people nationwide in nearly 150 shops. Philip has also been a director of charities, including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and he remains a trustee of a local charity.

For nine years he was chairman of a quoted Venture Capital Trust, Baronsmead 4 VCT plc, reflecting his enthusiasm for encouraging entrepreneurship in the small business sector. For six years he was also a director of Ruffer LLP, a leading independent private client fund manager.

Political Experience

Philip is a lifelong Conservative. He has campaigned for Conservative candidates at elections since 1974 and was a Conservative appointed governor of a primary school in the 1990s. During the run-up to the 2001 General Election he helped coordinate the campaign for target seats in Greater London - where the Conservatives made net gains.

He won a by-election in November 2001 in the Castle Ward of Ludlow to become the first Conservative Councillor on South Shropshire District Council. He led the Conservative Group on this council until December 2004. He was elected as Member of Parliament for the Ludlow constituency, winning the seat from the Liberal Democrats in May 2005.

In Parliament Philip has been a Member of the Work & Pensions Select Committee (2005-06), the Public Accounts Committee (2006-08) and the Treasury Select Committee (2007-08) before being appointed an Assistant Opposition Whip (2008-2010).

He was a director of the cross-party European Information Management Group (EURIM) and the parliamentary chair of its Information Governance group. He also chaired the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Corporate Governance and Rural Services, was Deputy Chairman of the APPG on Diabetes and London 2012 and was Secretary of the APPG on Post Offices.

In the Conservative Party he was Deputy Chairman of the International Office with responsibility for Conservatives Abroad (2008-2010).

He was also a Conservative appointed Governor of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (2008-2010).He has been Chairman of the Retail and Consumer Goods group of Conservative Business Relations and in this capacity served on the Commission into Small Shops on the High Street in 2008 and was Chairman of the Retail Crime Commission in 2009.

In May 2010, Philip became an Assistant Government Whip, when he was appointed Departmental Whip to the Cabinet Office responsible for Constitutional Affairs and to the Scotland Office. In October 2011 he was appointed Departmental Whip to the Department for Education and to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. In September 2012, Philip was appointed Minister of Defence Equipment, Support and Technology with responsibility for defence procurement and defence exports.Following the General Election in May 2015, Philip was promoted to Minister of State for Defence Procurement. In addition to his previous responsibilities for defence acquisition and exports, he supported the Secretary of State on the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 and sat on the Defence Board of the Ministry of Defence.

In July 2016 Philip was appointed Minister of State for Health at the Department of Health, supporting the Secretary of State for Health with responsibility for hospitals, workforce, financial performance, special measures, patient safety and maternity, and was reappointed following the General Election in 2017 with additional responsibility for procurement. He resigned as Minister in January 2018.

On his return to the backbenches, Philip was elected to the Environmental Audit Select Committee (2018-2019), to ensure governmental and non-governmental public bodies contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development.

In February 2018, Philip was elected co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Rural Services to help raise the profile of rural issues in Parliament. He became sole Chair of the group in December 2018. He also became Vice-Chairman Secretary of the Conservative Middle East Council.

At the request of the then Secretary of State for Defence, in July 2018 he published a report Growing the contribution of defence to UK prosperity. In December 2018 he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Defence Growth Partnership, a government and industry forum. In March 2019 he was appointed a Commissioner of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. During 2019 he has been a member of the Alternative Arrangements Commission.

Philip was appointed to the Privy Council in February 2019.