People
It is with deep sadness that we learnt of the death of Lord Young of Graffham on 2 December 2022. Lord Young was our founding president and brought great energy, intellect and experience to our mission and was writing on the subject of economic growth as recently as the week before he died. He made an enormous contribution to politics and business in his lifetime and we are enormously grateful for his work for our campaign. RIP.
Meet The Team
The Rt Hon The Lord Young of Graffham CH DL
PresidentLord Young of Graffham has had a distinguished business and political career. He first entered the world of business in 1961, founding the first of many enterprises.
Lord Young became involved in politics in 1979, leading on programmes to alleviate youth and adult unemployment. He initially joined Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio before becoming Secretary of State for Employment and Trade and Industry until 1989. In 1990 he became Executive Chairman of Cable & Wireless PLC until 1995.
In 2010 Lord Young was appointed Advisor to the Prime Minister on Enterprise to review the relationship between Government and small firms. His first report – “Make Business Your Business” introduced the Start Up Loan initiative. His second report – “Growing Your Business” opened up the whole Public Sector to Small Firms and his third report – “Enterprise for All” introduced Enterprise Advisers for all Head Teachers and an Enterprise Passport for all post Primary School children. As a result of this report, The Careers & Enterprise Company was launched.
David Sismey
DirectorDavid Sismey has over 20 years experience advising companies having worked in a number of senior positions in investment banking at JPMorgan and as a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs.
David advised the UK Government during the financial crisis in 2007-8. David was a Conservative Councillor from 2005-2019 and worked for the Conservative 2019 General Election Campaign. email: [email protected]
Gareth Davies MP
Vice ChairmanGareth is the MP for Grantham and Stamford. Prior to his election in December 2019, he was a senior director of a $500bn global investment company.
Gareth has served on a national government taskforce for HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office. In 2020 Gareth was appointed to the House of Commons Finance Select Committee and serves as Vice Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sustainable Finance.
Lord Leigh of Hurley
Vice ChairmanLord Leigh co-founded Cavendish Corporate Finance in 1988 following several years working as a Chartered Accountant specialising in taxation and M&A.
Howard served as Chairman of the Faculty of Corporate Finance of the ICAEW, earning him the Faculty’s Outstanding Achievement in Corporate Finance Award in 2008.
He was elevated to the Peerage as Lord Leigh of Hurley in 2013 and speaks regularly in the House of Lords on business, finance and tax matters.
Lord Leigh is Chairman of the Finance Bill sub-committee of the influential Economic Affairs Committee and became Chairman of Manolete Partners Plc in September 2021. Howard chairs a number of charitable concerns and was appointed a Treasurer of the Conservative Party in 2000, and subsequently as Senior Treasurer.