About

Chuka Umunna has spent two decades in law, politics, public relations and finance advising various companies, organisations and stakeholders on business-critical issues that impact on long term value – environmental, social and governance factors (ESG) in particular.

He is a Managing Director and the Head of ESG across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at JP Morgan, one of the world’s leading financial services firms.  In this role, he co-leads the firm's global ESG investment banking team, and he co-ordinates JP Morgan’s ESG strategy across the EMEA region, helping it's clients and the bank to integrate ESG into their operations and business activities.

Up until March 2021, he was Executive Director and Head of ESG (EMEA) at Edelman, the world’s biggest strategy and communications advisory firm. There he co-led its global ESG consulting practice and worked across the wider corporate affairs division on a whole suite of business issues for clients.

In addition, from 2020 until 2021 he served as an external, non-executive director (NED) for leading private equity firms Vista Equity Partners and BC Partners on the board of their portfolio company, Advanced, the UK’s third largest software company. He was also a NED of Digital Identity Net UK, a UK fintech firm in the digital identity sector (having briefly served as its Corporate Affairs Director), and sat on the advisory board of Signal AI, a leader in Artificial Intelligence Powered solutions for business and professional services.

Widely recognised as the former Member of Parliament for Streatham (2010-2019), Chuka served in Opposition as the Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and Shadow Minister for Small Business for several years.

A solicitor by profession, prior to his election to the UK Parliament he worked as a corporate employment lawyer for international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills LLP for several years.

Chuka continues to contribute regularly to a range of publications, including a variety of major UK newspapers and Forbes business magazine.

CBI 2021 - Steffan Rousseau pic