The Rt. Hon. The Lord John Nash has spent five decades getting things done. He was one of the pioneers of British venture capital, co-founding Sovereign Capital and chairing the BVCA, focusing on UK service businesses and buy-and-builds, and he was one of Softcat’s earliest backers. Softcat is now worth c.£4bn. With his wife Caroline he founded the charity Future, whose academy trust took Pimlico School from special measures to outstanding in just over two years. He then served as the Conservative Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools from 2013 to 2017 and later as the government’s lead non-executive director.
In this episode, John explains why he has launched the Centre for Government Reform to prepare business leaders to run the British state, and what he saw inside a civil service that asked him to explain what a lease was. He also covers his campaign to raise the social media age to 16 and his work to stop the live-streamed abuse of children. Finally, he tells us how one blunt piece of advice after lunch with Nigel Lawson led him to back the business that became Softcat.
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