Alok Sharma served as the Member of Parliament for Reading West constituency for 14 years (2010-2024) and was subsequently elevated to the House of Lords.
Prior to entering Parliament, Alok qualified as a chartered accountant and then worked as an investment banker for 16 years based out of London, Frankfurt, and Stockholm.
He served in a range of UK government ministerial roles prior to entering the Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development. He was appointed President Designate of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in 2020, alongside his role as Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy. In 2021, he took on the COP26 role full-time, leading the UK’s work in bringing together the world to tackle climate change and getting almost 200 countries to sign up to the historic Glasgow Climate Pact.
Alok was knighted in King Charles III’s 2023 New Year’s Honours for his services to tackling climate change. He currently serves as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford and is Co-Chair of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Climate Advisory Council