Chris Jones

Non Executive Chairman

After graduating from Cambridge University, Chris spent 20 years in the advertising industry during which time he became the worldwide Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of J Walter Thompson Co, one of the world’s biggest international advertising groups. He was the youngest person and first non-American to hold this position in the company’s 140-year history.

In 2001, after serious illness, Chris resigned from JWT and retired from the advertising business.  He left New York City in 2002 and returned to live in England.  He now has a wide range of business and not-for-profit interests.  He is an Operating Partner and Chairman of the Allocations Committee at Cognetas, a pan-European private equity firm. He sits on the Boards of three Cognetas portfolio companies: Commarco (German marketing services), Covenant (Healthcare) and Travelsphere (Leisure). In addition, he is a non-executive director of De Beers Diamond Jewellery, Central Trust Group plc, Results International and the Oxford Clinic for Specialist Surgery.  He is a Senior Advisor to Trinsum Group and a member of the Board of Advisors at Freewebs Inc.  He is a member of the Board of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, a Governor of St Edward’s School and the Dragon School in Oxford and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

He and his wife Sara, a diplomat at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, divide their time between their homes in Oxford and London.