I am an English and French businessman and barrister. I have lived and worked in Europe, Japan, South Africa and Australia; and am fortunate to have worked for Sir Frank Williams as chief executive and then chairman of the Williams Formula One team between 2006 and 2012.

Since leaving Formula One, my business activities have centred on co-founding, investing in and chairing start-ups and early-stage businesses. These include Ingenie, QuantumBlack (now part of McKinsey & Co), MindFoundry, Ox Mountain Limited, Osler Diagnostics, OxSonics and OrthoSon. I co-founded and chaired Oxford Semantic Technologies Limited, an AI spin-out of the University of Oxford until its acquisition by Samsung; I advise Keep Energy Systems Limited, a spin-out from the University of Nottingham. For seven years I was a director of Cosworth.

In 2020, I set up The Downforce Trust, a UK charity dedicated to accelerating action on climate change, focusing on initiatives that have benefits for security, food sovereignty and the economy as well as for the environment. The Trust has helped launch Downforce®, a pioneering technology for measuring natural capital, and SRI 2030, an initiative to promote a method of rice cultivation that roughly halves emissions and doubles yield. The Trust also works with UK Parliamentarians on nuclear power.

Today I chair two companies, Apolitical and Downforce Technologies as well as The Downforce Trust. I live in Oxford, where I am a Research Associate at Hertford College and assist with the Masters in Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment at the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment. I also manage our family farming partnership in north Oxfordshire.

I have written two books about Formula One: The Art of War – Five Years in Formula One; and together with Ross Brawn, Total Competition – Lessons in Strategy from Formula One. My first PhD was published as The Mandate of Heaven — Strategy, Revolution, and the First European Translation of Sunzi’s Art of War (1772) by Brill in 2019.

I graduated from the University of Cambridge University, and have PhDs from the University of Oxford and UCL University of London.