Simon Walker

Simon Walker has a distinguished career spanning government, media, and business, having served as Communications Secretary to HM The Queen and Director General of the Institute of Directors. After being elected President of the Oxford Union in 1974 during his studies at Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Simon Walker began his distinguished career as a TV journalist. He worked for five years with TV One in New Zealand from 1974 to 1979, notably interviewing Prime Minister Rob Muldoon, before moving to the United States as a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University in 1979. Walker then transitioned into politics, serving as Director of Communications for the Labour Party in New Zealand in the early 1980s, instrumental in the Labour Party’s return to power in 1984 under David Lange.

In recognition of his contributions, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2017 for services to business and the economy. After leaving the IoD, he became Lead non-executive director at the Department for International Trade from 2016 to 2020. Building on his extensive public service, Simon Walker was appointed Chair-Designate of the Trade Remedies Authority in February 2020, assuming the role of Chair in June 2021. He currently serves as a Governor at the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and provides strategic counsel as a non-executive advisor at Greenbrook Communications, continuing to shape policy and advise at high levels of government and business.