John Donald graduated from Exeter University with an Engineering degree in 1983 and spent the next 20 years in Investment Banking both in the Far East and Europe. During that time, he worked for Phillips and Drew, Jardine Fleming and ING Barings. He received the Institutional Investor award for No.1 ranking in Asian Equity Research for five consecutive years.
He left Investment Banking in 2004 and bought a Scotch Whisky company which he successfully sold on to investors in 2008. For the next 10 years, he ran his own consultancy business which involved taking on various different roles. These included advising on several large geopolitical and cyber risk projects, becoming a partner with corporate finance boutique, as an interim CEO for a tech startup and as a CFO for a fintech enterprise.
In 2019, he joined AXIS Capital as a Senior Cyber Adviser where he focused on training and thought leadership for the cyber insurance practice. For the next 5 years, he taught the “Understanding Cyber Security and Insurance” course and produced several influential publications including “35 Views of Cyber Risk” and “The Murmuration of the Starlings”.
John is the author of two books. His first book “Catataxis: When more of the same is different” was published in October 2011 by Quartet Books. His second book “Bolt from the Blue: Navigating the new world of corporate crises” was published by Elliott and Thompson in 2013.
John has several hobbies. A keen local historian, he founded the Lost London Churches project which aims to increase interest in the ancient parishes of the City of London. He is also an amateur cartographer and has produced maps illustrating a wide variety of topics, including the history of Kent and visualisations of geospecific risk. He is also a CEDR and FMA accredited mediator, and a regular lecturer on the SRMC Risk Management MBA course run by Frontier Risks.
Now semi-retired, John works as a freelance consultant on projects where he can bring his wide ranging expertise to bear on unusual or complex problems.