Sullivan & Worcester LLP

Trade & Export Finance

Simon Cook has experience in a wide variety of banking and finance transactions, including in relation to structured trade finance, trade finance, digitalised/electronic trade finance, receivables finance, supply chain finance, commodity finance, warehouse finance, project finance, invoice discounting and borrowing-base facilities and he has advised on transactions across the emerging markets. He has worked and travelled extensively in Africa and the Middle East, where he was based in Dubai for almost four years.

A member of ITFA’s Executive Board, in 2024 Simon was re-appointed its Head of Education. In November 2025, Simon was re-appointed as one of just eight full voting members on the African Regional Committee, of which he was also a founding member in 2017.

He is ranked in Chambers UK, 2026 in Tier 1 as a Leading Individual for Commodities: Trade Finance and is included in the ‘Hall of Fame’ for Trade Finance by The Legal 500 UK, 2026.

He regularly participates in structured trade finance, receivables finance, supply chain finance, digitalisation/electronic trade finance and project finance conferences and seminars throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including speaking at conferences on PPP in South Africa; on project finance and structured trade finance at Afrexim's annual structured finance conferences in Egypt, Ghana, Zambia, Cape Verde and South Africa; and at structured trade finance seminars and general finance seminars in London, Paris, Lisbon, Geneva, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, South Africa, Zambia, Uganda, Ghana, Mauritius, Nairobi and Dubai.

The College of Law, 1994, CPE and LPC

University of Bristol, 1991, M.A., Ancient History

University of Bristol, 1990, BA, (Hons) in Ancient History