Chris Vermont

Chris has a degree in Social and Political Science from Magdalene College, Cambridge. He is a finance specialist for less developed countries and was the founding CEO from 2006 to 2017 of GuarantCo, a local currency infrastructure finance initiative sponsored by the governments of Australia, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland & UK. He previously held senior positions with ANZ Grindlays / ANZ Investment Bank in London, Kolkata and New Delhi.

Chris holds a number of non-executive positions, including chairing BPL Holdings – the leading Credit and Political Risk insurance broker until March 2025. He was Master of the Worshipful Company of Mercers until July 2022 and now chairs their Property Committee. He is a patron of Day One (a charity helping young people from disadvantaged backgrounds into well paid employment) and was a governor of St Paul’s School London until September 2022.

Chris helped set up and now chairs the Board of Dhamana Guarantee Company, Kenya. Dhamana issues guarantees to East African pension funds and banks so they can supply much needed long term finance to essential infrastructure in the region. He was an independent non-executive director and Chair of the Credit Committee of a similar entity, InfraCredit Nigeria, until March 2025. During 2017 /18 Chris was also the Senior Guarantees Advisor to the EU Commission’s European Fund for Sustainable Development, a multi billion Euro initiative to address some of the root causes of economic migration into Europe. He is an Advisory Board member and part owner of TALF Solar, a fast growing green electricity generator, supplying schools, universities, hospitals and other municipal buildings in North India.