Simon Walker

Simon Walker is Chief Executive of the BVCA – The British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association.

Between 2003 and 2007 he worked at Reuters, first as director of corporate communications, and subsequently became director of corporate communications and marketing. Before joining Reuters, Simon was Communication Secretary at Buckingham Palace. He was previously Director of Communications at British Airways and a non-executive director of Comair Ltd (South Africa). He was a special advisor in the Prime Minister's Policy Unit at No 10 Downing Street from 1996 to 1997. He was previously a partner at Brunswick, the public relations group, and Director of European Public Affairs for Hill & Knowlton in Brussels. He was born in South Africa, and has worked as a journalist and consultant in New Zealand, Belgium and the UK.

He is a member of the Better Regulation Commission, a member of the steering committee of the Nelson Mandela Legacy Trust and a member of the UK-Jamestown Committee. He is a Director of the Reuters Foundation a Director of Communicor Public Relations and a Trustee of the New Zealand-UK Link Foundation.

He read politics, philosophy and economics at Balliol College, Oxford where he was President of the Oxford Union. He was a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. He is married with two children.

In 2002 he was PR Weekly's PR Professional of The Year. PR Week is a leading Public Relations magazine and its award is the highest accolade in the public relations industry.