Boka Partners Council

A former British Government Minister (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) and previously Parliamentary Private Secretary to the British Defence Secretary and Foreign Secretary, he has a long Parliamentary career. Having first been elected to the House of Commons in 1983, he now sits as a member of the House of Lords, for life. He has played key roles in international relations and has also previously been knighted, prior to a peerage. He additionally has a background as a barrister and serving in public company board roles.

The founder of Nexus, a strategic communications firm, he brings a wealth of experience from his own military service, political knowledge and general business ventures. He graduated from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and has served as an infantry officer in the British Army. With a background in politics, he has held various roles and was elected to London borough government in 2006. He maintains strong links with the UK's Conservative Party, both through multi-generational and historical family ties and ongoing personal networks. He has a successful track-record engaging on government and commercial projects in diverse sectors and industries, both domestically and internationally.

A trailblazing entrepreneur and the CEO of Vapor IO, a pioneering edge computing company. He is recognized for his influential roles as the co-founder of the Open 19 Foundation, founding Executive Director of the Open Compute Project, and co-founder of OpenStack. With over 20 years of leadership in the telecom and data center industry, he has made major contributions to open-source hardware and cloud computing. His expertise spans various domains including business operations, government technology (instrumental in the creation of the US Government's definition of Cloud Computing), and enterprise architecture.

Senior intelligence professional and former Senior Executive at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) before joining BAE Systems as the Vice President, Deputy General Manager of Network Systems and later COO of High Performance Technologies, Inc. and Senior Vice President at L-1 Identity Solutions. She previously served as Deputy Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and as Deputy Director for Science and Technology at the CIA as the senior technical advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence. During this time Joanne played a significant role in the creation of In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s not-for-profit venture capital firm. Other roles at the CIA included Director of Congressional Affairs, Deputy Director of the Resource Management Office, and Director of Program Analysis of the Community Management Staff. She spent a number of years on assignment to the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) as Director of Legislative Affairs and a Program Manager. She was awarded the CIA's Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement, and received the Director’s Award in recognition of extraordinary service.

An Australian businessman and the chairman of Watermill Capital Partners, a private family office with social impact investments. He was previously the President, CEO, and owner of La Trobe Financial, a leading credit asset manager, acquired by BlackStone and Brookfield. He has received several accolades, including being named the Wealth Management Executive of the Year and the Financial Services CEO of the Year in Australia. He has a background in economics and econometrics, and he has served on various advisory committees and boards. He is chairman of the Australian Basketball Players Association (ABPA) and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD) and a Senior Fellow (Life) of the Financial Services Institute of Australia (Finsia). He was awarded the Medal of Order of Australia (OAM) for services to business and services to basketball.

An entrepreneur in developing markets and business, he is Chairman of a family enterprise that includes extensive holdings and African estates, as well as agricultural, energy and power generation businesses. With a background in financial services, he holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management from the University of Buckingham and enjoys an extensive-reach network of industry leaders, across markets.