James Michael Douglas Thomson, Deputy

James was elected as Common Councilman for Walbrook Ward in 2013 and is the Deputy for the Ward.

James is the Chairman of the City of London Police Authority Board and is Chairman of its Economic Crime Committee which has oversight for the work of the City of London Police as National Lead Force for Fraud. He has served on the Police Authority Board since 2015 and served as Deputy Chairman from 2017 to 2020. He has served as Chairman of the Performance and Resource Management Committee, and he is also a member of the Professional Standards and Integrity Committee for the Police Authority Board.

James is a member of the City of London’s Policy & Resources Committee and Finance Committee.

Prior to becoming an elected Member, James was a Special Constable with the City of London Police for 12 years.

Outside the City, James is Chief Executive of MJ Gleeson plc the listed house builder focused on building low cost affordable homes for first time buyers.

James has spent the last 20 years working in industry including for Smiths Group, the FTSE 100 listed international engineering company, as Group Finance Director of DTZ Holdings plc, the listed property company now part of Cushman & Wakefield. Prior to becoming CEO of Gleeson he was Chief Executive of Keepmoat, the largest private developer of affordable homes in the UK delivering some 4000 homes a year.

James trained as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and spent 10 years in investment banking at HSBC and Deutsche Bank. At HSBC he spent 3 years in South Africa advising the ANC-led Government of National Unity.

James is a signatory to the City of London Corporation Members’ Diversity Charter: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/assets/About-us/members-diversity-charter.pdf.