Sir Laurie Magnus (51), an investment banker, has been Vice Chairman of Lexicon Partners, the privately owned corporate finance advisory business specialising in the financial services and utilities sectors, since 2001. He has nearly 30 years of investment banking experience, initially with Samuel Montagu & Co. Limited (subsequently HSBC Investment Bank), where he was deputy head of its UK corporate finance department. He joined Phoenix Securities Limited, the corporate finance advisory business focussed upon the financial institutions sector, in 1995. Following its acquisition by Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc. (DLJ), the US investment bank, he became a Managing Director of the merged business. After DLJ was acquired by Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) in 2000, he was briefly a Managing Director of CSFB. Since 1996, his principal focus has been on the provision of corporate finance advice to the insurance industry, where he has been extensively involved with capital raisings and mergers and acquisitions.

Sir Laurie Magnus is non-executive Chairman of Xchanging Ins-Sure Services, the insurance services provider jointly owned by Xchanging, Lloyd’s and the International Underwriting Association and also a non-executive director of The JP Morgan Income & Capital Investment Trust plc, The Cayenne Trust plc, TT electronics plc and Climate Exchange plc. He is a member of the UK Listing Authority Advisory Committee.

In the not-for-profit sector, he is Deputy Chairman of the National Trust and an elected member of its Council, Chairman of the Eating Disorders Association and a Trustee of the Windsor Leadership Trust.