Sir James Duddridge has served 3 Prime Ministers as a Minister, working in Downing Street, Whitehall and across Africa. He has worked in ten government departments and spent 4 years as Minister for Africa at the Foreign Office, also covering the Caribbean, Overseas Territories, with oversight of the development budget. He worked with the World Bank, the African Development Bank, other global development finance institutions and the United Nations. He is an Afrophile, having visited and worked in 46 African countries.
More recently he was Minister of State in the Department of Trade taking through the first trade bill post Brexit where he also represented the UK at the G20 Summit. He was responsible for taking the Withdrawal Act though parliament delivering the exit from the European Union. He served as PPS to Boris Johnson, sitting in on his all his political meetings and Cabinet meetings.
He has been a Government Whip and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in opposition, coalition and in government, serving in those roles for 5 years. In opposition he was PPS to George Osborne.
In 2022 he was made Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG), awarded for Public and Political Service, an honour normally reserved for senior Ambassadors. He was a Conservative MP from 2005-2024, retiring at general election. He currently a Non-Executive Director of a Housing Company and a speaker at African conferences.
Directly prior to entering parliament James helped set up YouGov in which he was the second investor. The company now provides global market research and is floated on the London Stock Exchange with a market cap peaking at £1bn.
Sir James Duddridge was a successful banker working for Barclays for 10 years. He worked in both the retail bank and with large corporates that overlapped with BZW (then Barclay’s merchant bank). He worked with the Chairman’s office on governance post Barings. He lived in Swaziland, Ivory Coast and Botswana. He worked as a local Bank Manager, Project Manager, Head of Credit, National Sales Manager in the UK, and Sales Director in French West Africa. His last role was as the Operations Director Barclays in Botswana, managing 1,000 staff across 40 locations.
In Parliament he has chaired the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the Regulatory Reform Select Committee, and the All-Party Africa Group. He chaired the HS2 Committee which has a quasi-judicial role lasting two years. He also Chaired the Audit Committee of the International Parliamentary Union.
He has held private sector roles in an African Communications Agency (Brand Communications), African Private Equity (TLG) and African Trade Conferences (DMA). He also a professional speaker at conferences and events.
He has various qualifications from the Securities Institute, Chartered Insurance Institute, and the Chartered Institute of Bankers.
He chaired a charity which links global MBA recipients with African entrepreneurs (Grow Movement) and has served on a mental health charity as a trustee (Shields).
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