Varun Chandra is the Prime Minister’s Chief Business, Investment and Trade Adviser – and in 2026 was also appointed as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to the United States on Trade and Investment. He also sits on the board of the Office for Investment on behalf of No10, and chairs the government’s Global Talent Taskforce. 

Previously, he served as the global managing partner of Hakluyt, advising leaders of the world’s largest companies and investors in the US, Europe and Asia on the opportunities and risks facing their businesses. He was the founder and chairman of a Silicon Valley / UK-based venture capital firm, and also worked in investment and merchant banking: trained at Lehman Brothers, he went on to help build a regulated advisory firm for former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and led a family-office backed merchant bank. 

Varun was previously a trustee of the Young Vic theatre, the British Asian Trust, the MCC Foundation, Sesame Workshop, the Royal Academy of Arts, and the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.