Charlie Geffen
Charlie is Chair of The International Stock Exchange Authority and serves on the Boards of Kentech, Surrey University and as Deputy Chair at The Institute of Cancer Research. He is also a Trustee at City Year which arranges a year of service for young people in inner city schools. He is a mentor for senior women in the FTSE 100 Cross Mentoring Foundation and an External Adviser on Department of Education panels interviewing applications for 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.