Charlie Geffen

He has served on a number of corporate boards in the financial services and energy sectors and was Deputy Chair at The Institute of Cancer Research. In December 2022 he was appointed by the government to Chair the Accelerated Settlement Taskforce as part of the Edinburgh Reforms. He is a mentor for senior women for the Mentoring Foundation and is an external adviser on Department of Education panels approving free schools.

He was previously Global Co-Chair of Private Equity at the US law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Chair of its corporate group in London where he led the growth of the transactional practice from 2014 to 2019. Prior to that he was the Senior Partner at the UK law firm Ashurst where he was responsible for leading the strategic direction of the firm. During his term the firm doubled in size as a result of a merger with a leading Australian firm and grew profitability by 20%.

Charlie graduated from Leicester University, joined Ashurst as a trainee in 1982, became a partner in 1991 and was elected Senior Partner just as the financial crisis was at its peak in September 2008. As a practicing lawyer he worked with many of the leading private equity firms as they invested in increasingly large businesses.