Our board

Rajesh Agrawal was appointed Deputy Mayor of London for Business by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in June 2016.

Born in India, Rajesh moved to London in 2001. As an entrepreneur, he founded RationalFX in 2005 and Xendpay in 2014, both companies utilising technology to reduce the cost of international money transfer for businesses and individuals. Rajesh is passionate about promoting entrepreneurship and creating opportunities for young people.

He was appointed Chair of Oxfam’s Enterprise Development Programme in 2015 and has been a Patron of the Prince’s Trust for many years. As Deputy Mayor, Rajesh aims to be a strong voice for London’s business community, protecting jobs and growth, and ensuring that the capital remains the most attractive place to do business in the world.

Declaration of interests:

• Deputy Mayor of London for Business
• Deputy Co-Chair, London Economic Action Group
• Chairman, Jobs and Skills Business Partnership
• Co-Chairman, Labour Friends of India Network
• Founders’ Committee Advisory Board, MedCity
• Majority shareholder at Rational Foreign Exchange Ltd, Xendpay Limited, Rational Group Limited

As Chief Executive Officer, Laura is responsible for the leadership, strategy, performance and accountability of the organisation, working closely with the board and Executive Team.

Prior to joining London & Partners, Laura was Managing Director of the Government & Public Sector Practice at WPP, the world’s largest marketing and communication services business. In that role, she advised governments on destination marketing, behaviour change, digital government and citizen engagement. She led a global network of regional teams in Beirut, Brussels, Delhi, Nairobi, Singapore and Sydney.

Laura is author of me.gov: The Next Generation of Digital Public Services. She taught communications for behaviour change at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Laura has spent her career at the intersection of public policy and communication. She spent several years as a UK public servant in London and Brussels, and has worked as a journalist in Russia and for an NGO in Germany.

Laura is a Londoner and speaks French and Russian. She is a governor of an inner-city London primary school. Laura has an undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford and a postgraduate degree from University College London.

Declaration of interests:

• Governor, Edith Neville Primary School and Children's Centre, London Borough of Camden
• Director of London & Partners subsidiaries: Dot London Domains Limited, London & Partners Events Limited, London & Partners Ventures Limited, London & Partners International

Allen is Managing Director of Strategy & Operations at London & Partners, the business growth and destination agency for London.

He was previously Interim Chief Executive, and prior to this Managing Director of Strategy and Corporate Affairs.

In his current role, he leads the organisation's financial, operations and governance functions, as well as its strategy, research and corporate affairs.

Previously, Allen spent six years at Barclays Bank where he led the bank’s political strategy function, and acted as an adviser to the Chairman and wider senior leadership.

He also led the bank’s business finance policy team, focusing on trade promotion, SMEs and scaleups both in the UK and across the EU, including as Chair of the SME committee of the pan-European wholesale banking group AFME. Following the 2016 referendum, Allen led the organisation’s Brexit and global trade policy response.

From 2008 to 2012, Allen worked at the London Stock Exchange as an adviser to the CEO and Chairman during the financial crisis, working to protect London’s position as the world’s leading financial centre. He has served in a number of government roles including within the UK Parliament and civil service.

Allen is married to Katy, who practices as a nurse in South London. They have one daughter.

Declaration of interests:

• Director of London & Partners subsidiaries: Visit London Limited, London Convention Bureau Limited, LondonTourism Limited, TourismLondon Limited, London Tourist Board Limited

London & Partners Board Member and Chair of the Remuneration Committee

Massy has more than 25 years of experience across the financial services sector, including in M&A and business development. More recently, she has spent the last 14 years in the property sector in strategy, capital raising, financial advisory and product development roles in investment firms and in corporate finance advisory.

She has experience of working in the UK, France and the United States, and she has held senior management roles at GE Capital, GE Real Estate, Cushman & Wakefield Investors and Deloitte Real Estate. She now acts as an independent advisor and consultant to real estate investors and investment management funds, as well as acting as a trustee to a charity.

Massy has a Bsc Economics from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Insead in France.

Declaration of interests:

• NED, Regional REIT Plc
• NED, Orbit Group Ltd
• NED, Orbit Treasury Ltd
• Director, New Horizons Advisory Ltd
• Director, 13-23 Evelyn Gardens Ltd
• Director, Buonvisi Ltd
• Trustee, UP Projects
• Investor, Member of Theseus Property LLP
• Investor, Project Spirit Property LLP

 

Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee

Jo Wright is a Chartered Accountant, who qualified at KPMG and has held executive finance leadership roles in media, technology and ecommerce.

Most recently Jo was the Chief Finance Officer and executive board director of Auction Technology Group; a Private Equity backed technology ecommerce business. In that role, she professionalised and transformed the finance function to serve the growing needs of a scaling business; providing commercial insight coupled with strong governance, while enabling the entrepreneurial spirit to thrive.

Previously Jo was CFO of Nickelodeon UK, the UK’s leading pay television children's broadcaster and a joint venture between Viacom and Sky. Jo led the transformation of the finance function to become a collaborative business partner enabling data-led decision-making. Jo supported the CEO and leadership team in the audience growth strategy; involving investment in UK produced content, working with UK production companies. She also managed the operational transformation of many of the enterprise functions, moving in-house functions to outsourced centers of excellence.

Prior to this, Jo held a number of senior finance roles at Sky working across diverse areas including advertising, programming, marketing, digital and investments.

Jo has an honors degree from the University of Birmingham in Accounting and Commerce and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales (ICAEW).

Declaration of interests:

• Chief Financial Officer, 11:FS

London & Partners Board Member

Tamara has 20 years of experience as an entrepreneurial leader: as an operator building and growing ventures, and as an advisor to companies of all sizes – from multinationals to SMEs – and to governments.

She is currently Chief Business & Science Officer at Holland & Barrett. Tamara moved from being on Holland & Barrett’s Board of Directors to its management team in April 2021, to help drive towards their vision of becoming the trusted health and wellness partner to 100 million people globally by 2025. She leads the Strategy, Transformation, New Ventures, M&A, Early-Stage Investments, ESG and Corporate Affairs functions, and a new Science Centre of Excellence.

She is a Non-Executive Director at the world’s largest building society, Nationwide, and she is also Chair of L&P Ventures, the commercial venture arm at London & Partners. She was previously a NED and Founding Trustee at The Scale-Up Institute.

Prior to Holland & Barrett, Tamara ran Live Better With, a healthcare platform that helped improve the quality of day-to-day life for more than three million people living with non-acute health conditions.

Tamara was previously a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where she was a leader in the European and North American Healthcare Practices, and led McKinsey’s knowledge and client work on entrepreneurship in healthcare, life sciences, digital and technology.

Tamara has published widely on high-growth entrepreneurship and is an experienced public speaker on scaleup ecosystems and digital health entrepreneurship, having presented at several global forums including TedXNHS, MIT, the G8 Innovation Conference and the World Bank.

Tamara received an MBE for services to Technology and Entrepreneurship in the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours. She has been listed in the Sunday Times Maserati 100, Management Today's 35 under 35, The Wharton School's 40 under 40, 50 Movers & Shakers in BioBusiness, ComputerWeekly’s Top 50 Influential Women in Tech, BusinessInsider's UK Tech 100, Startup.co.uk’s Young Guns, accelerateHer/Financial Times' Inspiring Fifty, and Red Magazine's Top 20 Career Shifters.

Declaration of interests:

• Chief Business & Science Officer, Holland & Barrett
• Director, Live Better With
• NED, Nationwide Building Society

London & Partners Board Member, Chair of the Nomination Committee

Mark Taylor is CEO of the Queen Elizabeth II Centre (QEII), a premier purpose-built events venue in Westminster. Mark has more than 35 years of experience of events, venues and the tourism sector. He started his career working in Sales for Club Med followed by the Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau, where he became Assistant Director.

Mark moved to the UK in 1990, where he took up the role of Marketing Manager, Wembley Convention and Exhibition Centre and subsequently of Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena, before securing the role of Director of Sales and Marketing for Wembley International. Mark then spent 16 years in the arts sector, firstly at the Barbican as Commercial and Buildings Director and then Chief Executive of the Wales Millennium Centre, before joining the QEII in April 2013.

Since his arrival in 2013, Mark has been taking the QEII Centre on a journey of revitalisation and rejuvenation, both physically and philosophically, working with his team to evolve the brand and deliver the ambition to become London’s finest specialist events venue.

Leading the centre through a major capital investment programme, he has re-established the centre’s "wow factor", transforming the reputation, appearance and performance of the QEII. His commercial prowess has seen the centre achieve its best financial results in its 35-year history and the centre is now attracting an increasingly diverse portfolio of clients and events.

Mark’s commitment and drive to modernise the centre was rewarded when he won the miaList Leadership Award 2015, an accolade for which he was nominated by the QEII staff. In the last eight years, the QEII Centre and its teams have won 37 industry awards for work across all areas of the business.

Mark currently serves as a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of the Meetings Industry Association and Victoria Westminster Business Improvement District and is married with two children.

Declaration of interests:

• CEO, Queen Elizabeth II Centre
• NED, Victoria/Westminster Business Improvement District
• Observer, British Tourist Authority

London & Partners Board Member

Manju has had a progressive career with Harvey Nichols, the luxury international retailer, since 1998. From 2018, she led the business as Chief Operating Officer and prior to that as CFO. In January 2021, she was appointed CEO.

During her time with the brand, she has been at the heart of commercial performance and technology.

Having redefined the business strategy across the UK and the international franchise store network, she has also driven an omni-channel global customer experience, underpinned by a transformational IT programme.

Having put sustainability at the heart of Harvey Nichols’ approach, she has driven the agenda with partners, suppliers and stakeholders. Outside of her career, since 2013, Manju has been an Ambassador and mentor to the Camden Spear Trust, which is a charity improving the lives of under-privileged young people.

She is also an Ambassador of both the Women of the Future network and Retail Week’s Be Inspired, which support the next generation of business leaders.

Among her accolades are Asian Women of Achievement and being recognised by The Evening Standard as one of London’s most influential people, as well as Retail Week’s Power List and Drapers Fashion Retail Power 100.

Manju is a Chartered Accountant and has a BSc in Economics from Warwick University.

Declaration of interests:

• CEO, Harvey Nichols
• NED, Workspace Group

London & Partners Board Member, Chair of the Commercial Committee

Formerly based out of Silicon Valley, Dominic Field has expertise in digital transformation, marketing and business strategy.

Prior to his December 2019 retirement, he was Global Leader of BCG’s Marketing practice and led the firm’s relationship with Google Inc. Dominic was the Founder Leader of Digital BCG and has spent his 30-year career working at board level with companies in the cross-hairs of digital disruption across multiple industries and geographies.

He has a particular focus on emerging trends and has helped many businesses to reimagine their strategy in the light of structural challenge.

He led a leading marketing services business and is a keynote speaker. Dominic is now building a non-executive portfolio alongside board-level advisory.

Declaration of interests:

• Director, Field Partners Ltd
• Director, The Design Museum Ltd

Chris is the Policy Chairman of the City of London Corporation. His role involves speaking for the financial and professional services sector of the UK to the Government and internationally.

He is a former Deputy Leader of Hertfordshire and Dorset County Councils and was first elected to Common Council of the City of London Corporation for Broad Street Ward in March 2013 and continually re-elected since.

Chris's past roles include Managing Director of companies in the construction, aviation infrastructure and global events management sectors. He is now a Non-Executive Director of various companies in the commercial property, planning and communications sectors.

Chris is an Honorary Bencher of the Inner Temple and Chairman of the Guild of the Royal Hospital of St Bartholomew. Chris is married to Alexandra. They have two children and live near Chorleywood, Hertfordshire and in the City of London.

Declaration of interests:

• NED, Hayward Properties Ltd (commercial property investment)
• NED, Hayward Consultancy Ltd
• Director, JBP Associates Ltd
• Consultant, Kelthbray
• Director, London Councils Limited
• Trustee, Barts Hospital Guild
• Trustee, Central Housing Fund for the Homeless
• Trustee, Friends of St Margaret Pattens
• Director, City Livery Club Ltd
• Director, Financial Services Skills Commission Limited
• Director, Green Finance Institute Ltd
• Director, Guild of Freemen Ltd
• Director, 7 Lothbury Freehold Ltd
• Director, The City UK
• Partnership Board, Central London Forward (CLF)

Eyal Malinger is a partner with London-based VC fund Beringea, where he co-leads the investment team. Eyal led Beringea’s investment and sits on the boards of Archdesk, Asterra, CGHero, CreativeX, Gorilla, MPB, Papier and WiredScore.

He was previously a director of Zoovu (sold to FTV Partners) and Aistemos (sold to RELX). Prior to joining Beringea, Eyal was at Countrywide, where he oversaw investments in the property technology sector. Prior to this, he was Vice President of Oaktree Capital’s European private equity fund and a consultant with McKinsey & Company.

Eyal began his career as a software engineer developing advanced telecommunication solutions. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Interdisciplinary Centre Herzliya.

Declaration of interests:

• NED, Picassolabs Inc trading as CreativeX
• NED, Utilis Inc trading as Asterra
• NED, MPB.com Ltd
• NED, Papier ltd
• NED, Gorilla B.V
• NED, CGHero Ltd
• NED, EMS operations trading as Archdesk
• NED, Wiredscore Inc.
• Observer on Commonplace Ltd and Chattermill Ltd
• Partner, Beringea LLP
• Founder of and advisor to Cyber Club London

Jo focuses on supporting charities, universities and business startups. She is chair of the advisory board for London’s MedCity within London & Partners which is focused on accelerating life science initiatives and innovation by partnering academic institutes, businesses and health services with the advice, investment opportunities and support that they need.

She serves on the boards of the UK Dementia Research Institute focused on progressing scientific research into dementia across six UK universities, where she also chairs the innovation and IP subcommittee.

She is on the board of LifeArc, a self-financing medical research charity that transforms the way diseases are identified and treated by advancing early scientific discoveries to the point where they can be developed into the next generation of diagnostics and treatments. It also commits to investing up to £1.3 billion by 2030 to transform promising life science ideas into life-changing medical breakthroughs for patients, faster.

Jo chairs Birmingham’s Precision Health Technology Accelerator, the University of Birmingham’s flagship life sciences research facility – a place where entrepreneurs, startups and scale-ups collaborate with clinical and academic specialists, creating unique opportunities to commercialise ideas and accelerate the rapid development of cutting-edge therapies and technologies.

She is on the boards of The RSA Group, a recruitment firm focused on Life Sciences and Beacon for Rare Diseases, a UK-based charity that is building a united rare disease community with patient groups at its heart. The charity upskills rare disease patient groups through training, guided programmes, community projects and research initiatives. She is also a strategic advisor and NED for biotechs in the UK, Finland and Spain .

Prior to this, Jo led PwC’s UK Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences practice, and spent 20 years assisting clients with strategy, transformational change and deals. She started her career at BP and then GSK, with roles in strategy, commercial, capital projects and operations.

She is a passionate supporter of critical public health issues, such as tackling dementia, mental health, rare diseases and anti-microbial resistance.

She is a chartered engineer and fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology and well as an MBA holder from Warwick University along with her undergraduate degree in Physics.

Declaration of interests:

Trustee, UK Dementia Research Institute

Trustee, LifeArc

Trustee, Beacon for Rare Diseases

Trustee, LAM Action

Chair, PHTA

Chair, Adora Digital Health

Board Member, ELEM Biotech

Board Member, Ostique

Board Member, Aplagon Oy

Board Member, The RSA Group

Ben is the Mayor of London’s lead advisor on economic and business policy. In this role, he supports the Mayor and his deputies, and works with colleagues across the GLA to develop and implement policy in support of London’s growth, competitiveness and fairness.

Prior to working at City Hall, Ben worked on Sadiq Khan’s campaign to become Mayor of London in 2016, in particular playing a key part in drafting his manifesto. Previously, Ben was Head of Policy Development at The Labour Party, and has a background in transport, environment, housing and local government policy. He served as a councillor in the London Borough of Wandsworth between 2010 and 2016. He holds a BSc in Public Policy, Government and Management from the University of Birmingham.

Originally from Warrington, Ben moved to South London in 2003 and still lives there today with his partner, Emma, and their daughter.

Declaration of interests:

Mayoral Head of Economic and Business Policy, Greater London Authority

National Advisory Council, Living Wage Foundation

London Leadership Board, Business in the Community

Member, Labour Party

Fellow, RSA

Member, Unison

London & Partners Board - Observer

Sarah Brown is Mayoral Director, Communications at the Greater London Authority. She was the Director of Communications for Sadiq Khan’s mayoral campaign in 2021, and Deputy Mayoral Director for Communications at City Hall during Sadiq Khan’s first term.

Sarah has worked in communications for national government, as well as in Parliament and politics.

London & Partners Board - Observer

Justine Simons has played a central role in the cultural revitalisation of London, leading the design and evolution of the capital’s culture strategy since the inception of the Greater London Authority. In 2015, she was awarded an OBE for Services to Culture in London.

Justine founded and is Chair of the World Cities Culture Forum – a major initiative on culture and the future of cities, involving 40 global cities. She led the capital’s biggest ever festival for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games with more than 5,000 events and is now overseeing its legacy, East Bank a major new culture and education district in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Over the last year, she has been supporting London’s recovery from the pandemic through the Let’s Do London campaign, encouraging a return to culture and hospitality in the capital.

She has shaped London’s Investment Strategy for the Creative Industries covering film, fashion, games and design. She has designed new policy innovations, including the UK’s first Creative Enterprise Zones, a new Culture at Risk Office to protect fragile cultural infrastructure, a new London Borough of Culture Award and the first Cultural Infrastructure Plan.

Justine established the Fourth Plinth as the UK’s biggest sculpture prize, is co-chair of London’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm and chaired the Mayor’s Suffrage Statue Commission which led to the first statue of a women in Parliament Square, suffrage campaigner Millicent Fawcett.