Career Biography

Walter Thomas is a distinguished in-house lawyer with over 25 years of experience advising companies level across multiple regions, including the UK, EU, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and China. He is known for his commercial acumen and practical approach and has made significant contributions to legal publications and corporate governance initiatives. Thomas also co-authored, with Robert Grimes, Bloomsbury Professional’s; UK & EMEA Corporate Counsel Handbook in 2020.

Thomas has extensive experience in legal and compliance leadership, having created and managed multi-jurisdictional in-house legal and compliance departments. He has advised boards and C-suites, managed corporate secretariats, and implemented multinational corporate governance programmes.

His expertise spans a broad range of transactional and regulatory matters, including cross-border business transactions, cross cultural negotiations, software and SaaS licensing, commercial leases, construction, procurement, agency and distribution, competition law, mergers and acquisitions, and employment matters. He has expertise in Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, GDPR, data protection, and anti-corruption matters.

Thomas is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales and an Attorney in California. He holds degrees from Cambridge, Pepperdine, and Texas A&M. He has held senior legal roles, including Chief Legal Officer at Storm Technologies Group Limited, and Vice President roles at ACCO Brands Corporation and ACI Worldwide Inc.