COMMUNITY PROFILE

Richard Laing

Former Board Mentor

Criticaleye

Richard holds a number of Chairman and non-executive director (NED) positions across a range of commercial and third sector organisations, including:

• 3i Infrastructure plc (Chairman)
• Perpetual Income and Growth Trust plc (Chairman)
• JP Morgan Emerging Markets Investment Trust plc
• Miro Forestry, a sustainable forestry business in West Africa, with over 25,000 hectares of land growing a mix of fast growing timber (Chairman);
• Tritax Big Box REIT plc
• Leeds Castle in Kent, described by Lord Conway as “the loveliest castle in the world”.

He has had a wide range of previous NED appointments, such as:

• The London Metal Exchange, the world’s premier non-ferrous metals market which offers futures and options contracts across a range of metals;
• Madagascar Oil, an AIM listed company focused on the development of heavy oil and conventional oil & gas deposits in five onshore blocks in Madagascar;
• Aureos Capital, a leading private equity fund manager operating in emerging markets with $1bn under management;
• Pacific Rim Palm Oil, which grew palm oil in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea with over 75,000 hectares planted;
• Globeleq, an emerging markets power generation and distribution company;
• Del Oro, an orange growing and processing operation in Central America;
• Pan African Cement, a sub-Saharan African cement producer and distributor (sold to LaFarge);
• Camelot plc, the operator of the UK National Lottery.

During his executive career, Richard was Chief Executive of CDC, formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation Group, from 2004 to 2011 where he built the business from a net worth of £1 billion to £2½ billion, having joined the organisation in 2000 as Finance Director.

Prior to CDC, Richard spent 15 years at De La Rue plc, holding a number of positions both in the UK and overseas, latterly as Group Finance Director. Before De La Rue, he worked in agribusiness in developing countries, at Price Waterhouse (now PwC) where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant and at Marks & Spencer plc.

He is a graduate of Cambridge University where he obtained an MA in Engineering. His interests focus mainly on being outside, for example he has climbed all the Scottish Munros.