Luke Johnson was the chair of the RSA from 2009-2012. He has served as Chairman of Channel 4 Television since 2004 and as principal of Risk Capital Partners, a private equity firm, for the last eight years.  He is also an owner/Chairman of Giraffe restaurants, Patisserie Valerie and Synarbor, the UK’s largest teacher recruitment business. He has also owned companies in dentistry and retailing.

Previously he built up PizzaExpress and worked as a stockbroking analyst with Kleinwort Benson.  He studied at Oxford University and has written a weekly column on business for eight years – for the last eighteen months with the Financial Times.  He served as a Governor of the University of the Arts London for six years until 2006.