Simon Thompson grew up in Warwickshire, England and has BA and MA degrees in Economics from the University of Cambridge. His business career has covered general management, corporate finance and risk management, strategic planning and organizational transformation throughout the world, both as a senior corporate executive and a management consultant.

Simon was General Manager of R J Reynolds Tobacco’s Subsidiary in Hong Kong, VP Finance and Planning of RJR’s Asia-Pacific Region, Vice President - Treasury Operations of US parent RJR Nabisco, and CEO of its Finance subsidiary in Geneva, Switzerland. He joined Trafalgar House plc in London, then owner of the Ritz, Stafford and Dukes Hotels, as Group Treasurer, and became CEO of Trafalgar House Finance plc.

His consulting clients have ranged from Europe’s second largest IT consulting firm, a leading US nutrition company, to a major downstream energy venture jointly owned by Shell and Texaco, where he held the CFO role. Simon has worked and consulted in some twenty-seven industries. He is fluent in German and French.