Mervyn Davies

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(Evan) Mervyn Davies (born 21 November 1952), Baron Davies of Abersoch, is a former banking executive who was appointed Minister for Trade and Investment by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in January 2009 after he was appointed to the House of Lords. [1] Davies is a non-executive director of Diageo, PineBridge Investments Ltd, and Bharti Airtel Ltd. [2]

Finance

Davies was worked at Citibank from 1983–93, where he was Managing Director of UK Banking. In 1993 he joined Standard Chartered plc where he was Hong Kong Director 1997–2001 and Group Chief Executive 2001–06. He has also been a Non-executive Director of Tesco plc since 2003. [3] In 2007 he was appointed Chairman of Fleming Family and Partners, a Director of FF&P Private Equity Ltd and a member of the Private Equity Board of Corsair.

Politics

From 2007-08 he was Chairman of Prime Minister’s Business Council for Britain. [3] In January 2009 Davies was made Lord Davies of Abersoch and appointed Minister for Trade and Investment. [4] A few days later The Sunday Times reported that, 'For months Davies has had the ear of Gordon Brown on economic and financial affairs, and banking sources say he has been one of the most effective lobbyists among the informal network of senior City figures offering the government free advice.' [5] According to the article Davies met Gordon Brown at Chequers on 11 January 2009 along with Marcus Agius, chairman of Barclays, and Lloyds TSB chief executive Eric Daniels. [5]

Affiliations

The following appointments were noted by ACOBA who "saw no reason why he should not take up the appointment subject to a waiting period of 3 months from his last day in office, on the basis that he would not draw on any privileged information which was available to him as a Minister, and the condition that, for 2 years after leaving office, he should not become personally involved in lobbying UK Government Ministers or Crown servants, including Special Advisers, on behalf of the firm".[6]

Notes

  1. Andrew Porter, 'Mervyn Davies appointed Trade Minister by Gordon Brown', Telegraph.co.uk, 14 January 2009
  2. Register of Lord's Interests, UK Parliament http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/standards-and-interests/register-of-lords-interests/?letter=D Lord Davies of Abersoch] accessed 3rd October 2011
  3. 3.0 3.1 ‘DAVIES, (Evan) Mervyn’, Who's Who 2009, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2008 (accessed 13 February 2009)
  4. Andrew Porter, 'Mervyn Davies appointed Trade Minister by Gordon Brown', Telegraph.co.uk, 14 January 2009
  5. 5.0 5.1 Iain Dey, 'Brown calls in the financial firefighters', The Sunday Times, 18 January 2009
  6. Twelfth Report 2010-2011 Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, accessed 3 December 2014