Derek George Henry Laud FRSA (born 9 August in Chelsea, London) is a British banker, author, journalist, broadcaster and visiting professor. He has other wide business interests. He is the Chairman of the Foundation Board of Lucy Cavendish College at the University of Cambridge, and the first elected male Honorary Fellow in the history of the College. He also Chairs the North American Committee for Cambridge. He was Chairman of the Board of Ravenstone House Group of Schools in the UK, controlled and owned by Pacific Investments PLC. He has been an accredited journalist and has written on social, political, travel and tennis. He has covered the Wimbledon Championships for more than 15 years.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. Laud is Pro Chancellor at London South Bank University and Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences. He is a former political lobbyist, with specialist knowledge of the financial services regulatory sector, and was adviser to all five UK financial services regulators, including the Securities and Investments Board (SIB). Laud was appointed to work with the Personal Investment Authority (PIA), where he was adviser to the Board, and to Sir Gordon Downey, the Chairman. Sir Gordon is a former government Auditor General and the first Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for Standards. The PIA was later merged and became known as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Laud is a partner in the private banking sector and clients include ultra high networth individuals. He is also Senior Adviser at Stern & Co, a Rothschild and Goldsmith family wealth management company. He currently sits on the board of the Overseas Territories and is Executive Director. Laud has been a political adviser and professional speechwriter. He is a regular contributor to UK news titles and commentator on current affairs on multiple broadcast channels.

He received public attention when he was a contestant on the 2005 series of the British reality television show Big Brother. and was voted one of the most popular ever contestants.

Laud is co-founder and Executive Director of the New City Initiative, a think tank for the finance sector.^[1] He is also a partner, partnership secretary, Director of the Advisory Board, and Director of Global Corporate Affairs at wealth management company Stanhope Capital LLP, where Lord Browne of Madingley, the former Group CEO of BP, chairs the Advisory Board, upon which Laud sits. Laud was the first black member of the Conservative Monday Club and made history as the first black master of foxhounds in the United Kingdom and is entitled to be styled, MFH, but chooses not to do so.

Early life

Derek Laud was born on 9 August in Chelsea, London.

Career

Politics

He was asked by David Cameron, Leader of the conservative party, and Francis Maude, the conservative Party Chairman, to be Mayor of London Candidate. He declined and Boris Johnson was subsequently chosen.

Laud was the first special adviser appointed to the House of Lords Rural Economy Group, where members included the Duke of Westminster, (for whom he wrote speeches), the Earl of Radnor, and Lord Vincent.

Laud was briefly a member of the Conservative Monday Club. In October 1984, he produced a policy paper under the auspices of the club's Immigration and Race Relations Committee titled "The Law, Order and Race Relations". He considered himself on the liberal wing of the club, and resigned following disagreements about apartheid South Africa. He later wrote a paper on how to apply cultural sanctions on the regime and was a vocal critic of the British government and its apparent lack of interest in dismantling apartheid. He clashed with Foreign Office officials on the topic and wrote a dissenting minute to Foreign Office Ministers on the subject following a visit to the region.

Laud subsequently became a researcher and special adviser, working for Conservative Members of Parliament and government ministers in the mid to late-1980s. He also worked as an advisor to Sir Gordon Downey, the former Auditor General, Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, and Chairman of the Personal Investment Authority.^[1] He was Private Secretary to the Rt. Hon. Lord Rees QC, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Minister for Trade. He also acted as researcher to Sir Spencer Perceval QC MP, Her Majesty's Government Solicitor General.

In the second half of the 1980s, he became an aide and speechwriter for then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.^[2][3] During this period, Laud also contributed to speeches for other leading Conservative politicians, including Alan Clark and Michael Heseltine.^[2][4] Laud was a campaign aide for then Prime Minister John Major in 1990 and the 1992 general election campaign.^[3]

In the 1997 general election, Laud was selected as the conservative parliamentary candidate for Tottenham, a constituency with a large non-white population that had been represented by black Labour MPs since 1987, but stepped down shortly before the election, citing "business reasons".^[5] The Daily Telegraph reported that Laud had withdrawn his candidacy after being convicted for drink driving in the United States.^[6] Three people in a car struck by Laud suffered minor physical injuries.^[3]

In May 2019 Laud stood for the Liberal Democrats in Witney, for election to West Oxfordshire District Council. as a protest against the WIndrush scandal^[7] and was one of the most severe critics of prime minister Theresa May, writing in the Financial Times that she was 'characterless, incompetent and even her best would never be good enough'. He blamed his long term friend, former prime minister, David Cameron for promoting someone so obviously 'devoid of interpersonal skills and with limited intellectual capacity' to the office of Home Secretary.

Laud also works on Human Rights and has supported and helped prominent figures fight cases against the police and various other bodies.

Business

In the late 1980s, Laud was a consultant for Strategy Network International (SNI),^[8] a lobbying company with clients in the mining and minerals sector in Southern Africa and the firm had links to UNITA the Angolan armed opposition group. However, he headed up the financial regulatory arm of the business. He recommended the recruitment of life long friend and business partner Conservative Member of Parliament Michael Colvin as an adviser. Laud sat on the Advisory Board of Sadlers Wells, chaired by Ian Hay Davison the CEO of Lloyds of London. Other members of the board included, Lady Valerie Solti, a close friend of Laud's.

During the late 1990s, Laud was head hunted into private equity by the substantial business figure Sir John Beckwith, and was a director of companies owned and controlled by the Pacific Group. The Group had substantial investments in wealth management, through River and Mercantile, and Thames River Capital. Other investments included healthcare, Education (Laud chaired the Board of Ravenstone House Group of Schools) gyms, sport and outdoor media, and where owners of a model agency.

In 1992, Laud co-founded the lobbying company Ludgate Laud with Michael Colvin.^[9] In 1996 Laud acquired part of Ludgate Laud then with an annual fee income of around £500,000 and with prestigious clients, such as Johnson and Johnson, British Steel and the Institute of Actuaries, the Personal Investment Authority and Takecare PLC .^[10] Laud is regarded as one of the early and prominent communications experts in the UK and lectures widely on the subject.

He is a partner, partnership secretary, director of the advisory board, and Director of Corporate Affairs at wealth management company Stanhope Capital LLP.^[11]

Laud is also co-founder and the Executive Director of New City Initiative, a think tank concerned with the independent banking sector.^[1] He is a banker in the wealth management sector and holds various other directorships.

Writing

In 2015 Laud published The Problem With Immigrants^[12] through political publishing house Biteback, and he is a contributing writer to the Financial Times, the Independent and The Daily Maverick. He has extensive tennis knowledge, and has been a regular writer at the Wimbledon Championships since 2010. He counts Serena and Venus Williams as personal friends. During his first year of covering the Championships he won the media tennis tournament. Laud has recently turned to songwriting. His first song, 'Over My Shoulder' with singer Carletheia, was released in September 2022, and within two months had 45,000 downloads on Spotify. He is currently writing another book on religion and politics.

Media appearances

Big Brother

In 2005, Laud was a contestant on the sixth series of the British reality television series Big Brother, in which a number of contestants live in an isolated house trying to avoid being evicted by the public.^[13] He was the tenth person to be evicted from the Big Brother House after losing in a head-to-head with Eugene Sully.^[14]

Other

Laud appeared on a charity edition of the television quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on 17 September 2005, partnering Edwina Currie.^[15] Laud appeared on the BBC television discussion programme Question Time in November 2005.^[16][17] He makes regular TV and radio broadcasts. He is also a specialist writer on tennis and covers the Wimbledon Championships every year and won the media tennis tournament during the first year of becoming an accredited tennis writer.

Personal life

An enthusiastic fox hunter, Laud was made Master of Foxhounds for the New Forest Hunt in 1999, becoming the first black master of foxhounds in the United Kingdom.^[18][19] He lives between the Cotswolds and Knightsbridge in London.

Laud is an advocate for the gambling addiction charity GamCare^[20] and the dog protection charity the Dogs Trust, the latter of which was his chosen charity when he appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? with former government minister Edwina Currie.^[21]