LEADING British financial expert, businessman Gerry Grimstone has been appointed as the UK’s investment minister on Wednesday (18).
Grimstone, 70, is expected to face hectic challenges as Britain moved out of the European Union.
The latest appointment has also come when Britain is struggling to tackle the spread of Covid-19 and its impact on British businesses.
The government will get advice from the new minister on how to boost British competitiveness after the UK emerges from the coronavirus crisis, which is likely to impact the overall business activities of the UK.
The new investment minister has served many senior positions at Barclays and fund manager Standard Life Aberdeen.
Grimstone has held numerous government advisory roles, including in the UK-India relations, participating in prime ministerial visits and the annual dialogues between the finance ministries of two countries.
In India, he was on the board of HDFC Life, one of India’s largest long-term life insurance provider, with its headquarters in Mumbai.
His new role replaces the role of trade minister that had been held by Ian Livingston and media executive Rona Fairhead.
Grimstone will be an unpaid minister jointly at the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
A government release on the new appointment stated: “Sir Gerald Grimstone was appointed unpaid Minister of State jointly at the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on March 18, 2020.”
The appointment is along with a life peerage, as he will also support to push the government’s trade bill through the House of Lords.
Grimstone started his career as a civil servant at the Treasury, working on privatisation for Margaret Thatcher.
