Simon Walker

As a non-executive director for the Department for International Trade, Simon Walker has an undeniably key role in the government. Born and raised in South Africa, he has worked in business, media and politics in the UK, Belgium and New Zealand.

In 1974, after Walker graduated from Oxford, he soon moved across the world to New Zealand to become a TV journalist for TV One. During his five year post, he presented Tonight; a popular current affairs programme. One of Walker’s more memorable interviewees was the Prime Minister Rob Muldoon. During the interview Walker changed the questions he was supposed to ask and probed Muldoon on the topics of Soviet naval presence and nuclear attacks, causing him to snap and refuse to answer. From TV One, Walker moved to the US and was honoured with a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.

In the 80s, Walker moved to Europe, working in PR until 1996 when he returned to politics as an advisor to former Prime Minister John Major. In 2000, he went on to be appointed communications secretary to Queen Elizabeth. He was appointed Director General of the Institute of Directors in 2011 and remained there for half a decade. In 2017 his remarkable contribution to the economy and business was recognised and he was honoured with a CBE.