Mervyn Davies

This article is part of the Revolving Door project of Spinwatch.

(Evan) Mervyn Davies (born 21 November 1952), Baron Davies of Abersoch, is a former banking executive who was appointed minister for trade and investment in January 2009 by UK prime minister Gordon Brown when he was made a life peer in the House of Lords. Davies is a non-executive director of Diageo, PineBridge Investments Ltd, and Bharti Airtel Ltd.

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. 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. In January 2009 Davies was made Lord Davies of Abersoch and appointed Minister for Trade and Investment. 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.' 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.

Affiliations

The following roles 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".

• Diageo - Non-executive Director from August 2010
• Corsair Capital LLC -Partner from August 2010
• Pinebridge Investments Ltd - Non-executive Chairman from August 2010
• Ridgeway Partners LLP - Adviser from August 2010
• Native Land - Member of the Advisory Committee from September 2010
• Bharti Airtel from September 2010

The following roles 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".

• Moelis & Co - Chairman of the Advisory Board and Senior Adviser to CEO from September 2010
• Monitise plc - Special Adviser from September 2010

2014

• In June 2014 Davies was appointed vice-chairman of US firm Teneo, a multinational corporate advisory group founded in 2011 by Declan Kelly, former US special envoy to Northern Ireland and CEO of Financial Dynamics; Doug Band, former chief adviser to Bill Clinton; and Paul Keary, former senior managing director of FTI Consulting. The firm owns UK lobbying firm Heathcroft Communications. The group is headed by ex-HSBC comms chief Richard Beck