Chris Vermont

Chris has a degree in Social and Political Science from Magdalene College, Cambridge. He is a finance specialist for less developed countries and was the founding CEO from 2006 to 2017 of GuarantCo, a local currency infrastructure finance initiative sponsored by the governments of Australia, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland & UK. He previously held senior positions with ANZ Grindlays / ANZ Investment Bank in London, Kolkata and New Delhi.

Chris holds a number of non-executive positions, including chairing BPL Holdings – the leading Credit and Political Risk insurance broker. He was Master of the Worshipful Company of Mercers until July 2022 and now chairs their Property Committee. He is a member of The Bike Project Inner Cycle (The Bike Project provides mobility to asylum seekers through supplying reconditioned bikes) and was a governor of St Paul’s School London until September 2022.

Chris is an independent non-executive director and chairs the Credit Committee of InfraCredit Nigeria, which he helped set up in 2016. InfraCredit issues guarantees to Nigerian pension funds so they can supply much needed long term finance to essential infrastructure in the country. During 2017 /18 Chris was also the Senior Guarantees Advisor to the EU Commission’s European Fund for Sustainable Development, a multi billion Euro initiative to address some of the root causes of economic migration into Europe.