John Godfrey

I joined TheCityUK in June 2024 as the Managing Director for Public Affairs, Policy and Research.

Before that, I worked for forty years in City institutions, as well as in central and local government. My early career was in debt and equity capital markets with a Japanese investment bank, then following a secondment as SPAD to the then Home Secretary I returned to the City to work in in Corporate Affairs for a US and then a German bank before spending 16 years as Corporate Affairs Director and Executive Committee member at Legal & General. This work included policy formulation and engagement on financial and regulatory issues, and more broadly on investment-led growth, public-private engagement and financing, demographic change and pensions, housing and regeneration in multiple cities across the UK.

During 2016/17 I spent time away from L&G working as Head of the Policy Unit in Number Ten Downing Street before returning to L&G, where I latterly worked as Levelling Up Director.  Having concluded that most delivery of major investment is locally-driven, I spent a year working as Interim Executive Director for Housing, Property and Regeneration for the West Midlands Combined Authority, where we combined government funding and private capital to unlock over 8,000 homes on brownfield sites.

I am a passionate believer in joined-up, evidence-led policymaking and am a Financial Inclusion Commissioner, a contributor to various Commissions and boards on health-related topics, including as founding Chairman of Business for Health and a member of the Board of the Centre for Ageing Better.

In my spare time I read a lot of history, garden a lot in Herefordshire and ski whenever possible.