Career Biography

I had a humble start in life – and the hunger I developed from that gave me an edge. After a few years of working on the business side at a few technology companies, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer – mainly because I enjoyed negotiating and running projects. I decided to study law on a part-time evening basis whilst holding down a full-time job at a multinational technology company. I threw everything at it – leaving the house at 7am to go to work and getting home around midnight after university most days.

The first ‘key milestone’ occurred during my second year at university. I landed a two-week ‘diversity’ work placement at the magic circle law firm, Allen & Overy (now A&O Shearman). I was treated very well by A&O during that two-week period, and it gave me an insight into a world that was very different than the world I was from – and I wanted more. On my first day, I attended an evening function and was told ‘off the record’ by a partner at the firm that the placement ‘will not lead to a job or anything but just enjoy the experience’. I was not having any of it. I left the function early to go home to apply for a training contract at the firm! My hard work paid off – I ultimately managed to land a training contract at the firm and my career took off from there. I qualified in the M&A group working on multiple high-profile deals, and eventually landed a secondment from A&O to Fenwick & West in California.

Another key milestone in my career was when I landed a secondment to SoftBank at their then recently launched $100bn SoftBank Vision Fund. The Vision Fund was an unprecedented opportunity that was only going to come by once in my career, as the founder and CEO of SoftBank, Masayoshi Son (Masa), had just put together the biggest tech-focused fund in history. I hit the ground running at the Vision Fund and quickly started playing a leading role on some of the most high profile and complex deals, including a US$7.7bninvestment in Uber. The stars really aligned for me at SoftBank – my prior experience in business, law, technology came together at once. When I was offered a permanent role at the end of my secondment, I quickly got over my prior fixation on law firm partnership and jumped at the chance of joining SoftBank full time.

On reflection, my time at SoftBank was crazy but I loved every minute. The pace, the workload, the characters, the sums involved – everything was off the scale! I started by building out a European legal team. I then joined the front-office as an investor and sat on numerous boards. My next task was to set-up and help manage a new fund in the Middle East as its GC. Then Masa invited me back to the Vision Fund and promoted me to Managing Partner and the GC of both Vision Funds (a second Vision Fund had since been launched). I also ran point on SoftBank’s proposed sale of Arm to Nvidia for up to USD$40 billion.

Being given the opportunity to join the front-office at the Vision Fund was huge – this gave me a seat at the table and expanded my network and my skillset. I was no longer ‘just a lawyer’. However, working with Masa and being entrusted by him to manage and deliver on many of his/SoftBank’s most important projects was a career game-changer.

My most recent key milestone was joining Arm and becoming a public company GC. I first got to work with Arm, its management team and its now CEO, Rene Haas during the proposed sale of Arm to Nvidia when it was owned by SoftBank. I immediately gelled with the company and developed a great rapport with Rene and the rest of the management team. When the Nvidia deal was called off and Masa decided to return Arm to the public markets, I was offered the role of EVP and CLO at Arm and tasked with playing a leading role on the then proposed IPO. I officially joined Arm in 2022 and today. I am fortunate enough to run the following teams on a global basis: Legal, Compliance, Co-Sec, Trade Compliance, Government Affairs and Corporate Development. I also sit on the Executive Committee and work closely with its members and the CEO on a daily basis.

There were many highlights of the Nvidia deal – it was a very important, high-profile deal that was heavily scrutinised by regulators. At the early stages of the transaction, managing the leak risk was key and the deal team on the SoftBank side was incredibly lean as a result – the leanest internal team that I have ever worked with on any transaction, let alone one of this scale – and I was carrying a lot of responsibility personally. Just getting to the signing of the transaction on terms that were acceptable to SoftBank was a challenge – Nvidia is a first-class outfit and they negotiate hard – but so do I, and we got it done with mutual respect.

Leading a deal of this magnitude and importance for SoftBank no doubt elevated my standing within the organisation and I enjoyed the experience – but, in hindsight, the biggest benefit of this deal for me was the understanding that I developed of Arm’s business and the semiconductor industry. I had no idea at the time that I would go on to become Arm’s next GC but I was involved in the regulatory process and my learnings from that have benefitted me immensely since joining Arm. Ultimately, the regulatory hurdles on this deal proved to be too great to overcome but my involvement in the deal ultimately led me to working with Rene and Arm so I’m very pleased I was involved. Witnessing first-hand two amazing visionaries in the form of Masa and Jensen was pretty special too!

As I mentioned, ultimately the deal didn’t clear the regulatory hurdles – but in true SoftBank and Masa style, there was no dwelling on what could have been – we accepted the outcome and immediately pivoted to an IPO and the rest is history!

Given Arm’s importance to the UK tech scene, the topic of where Arm would list after seven years as a private company was always going to garner attention. Coupled with the political landscape (a general election was fast approaching) and the then growing pressure around UK vs US listings, it wasn’t a surprise that interest was taken at the very highest levels. Not only did we have the various exchanges in the US and UK pitching us, it’s also public knowledge that we had numerous conversations at the highest levels of the British government and the FCA.

Arm is a British company and we are very proud of that fact. The decision to list in one jurisdiction versus another is entirely independent from that. At the end of the day, we had an obligation to our shareholders to choose the best path forward for the company and its stakeholders. Based upon the extensive research we undertook and the advice that we received from our advisers, it was decided that we would conduct a single primary listing on NASDAQ. What I can say is that having worked with the teams of no less than three Prime Ministers around this, including directly with the then Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, I didn’t enjoy breaking the news to them that we had decided to list in the US. I remain a proud Brit and I desperately want the UK to be successful – Arm’s HQ remains in the UK, as do the majority of our employees and our intellectual property – but a small percentage of our shares are listed in the US where the majority of our customers and investors are based.