Sir Graham Wrigley KCMG

Chairman | CDC Group

Graham was a founder partner of Permira and a member of the firm’s management board as it grew into one of the leading global private equity firms. He stepped down from the firm in 2006 to “retrain” for a new career in international development by completing an MSC in development economics at SOAS. Since then he has worked in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, focussing on using his investing experience to help bring long term investment capital to help the private sector in these countries to grow and provide sustainable development. He was appointed Chairman of CDC, the UK Government’s private sector development arm, in 2013. In 2015, the government recapitalised CDC for the first time in almost 20 years, and this led to the CDC Act in 2017. Prior to Permira, Graham worked for Bain & Co and studied at Cambridge University. He also has an MBA from INSEAD, where is he is an adjunct professor. He works with several charities, including Sir Edmund Hillary’s Himalayan Trust UK, where he serves as Chairman, and has volunteered for them for over 35 years.