Mark Austin

Mark Austin advises clients on a full range of public and private securities offerings as well as M&A and general corporate matters across multiple sectors.

Mr. Austin leverages extensive experience to guide market-leading companies and investment banks on:

  • Initial public offerings (IPOs)
  • Rights issues and open offers
  • Placings
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • General corporate work

A recognized industry leader, Mr. Austin is a member and former Chair of the Listing Authority Advisory Panel, the practitioner panel that advises the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on primary markets policy and regulation issues. He also serves on the FCA’s Markets Practitioner Panel and The London Stock Exchange’s Primary Markets Group.

Mr. Austin is a member of the UK’s Capital Markets Industry Taskforce (CMIT), which was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in July 2022, and which is tasked with reforming the UK’s capital markets, as well as HM Treasury’s Digitization Taskforce.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer appointed Mr. Austin in October 2021 as the independent chair of the UK Secondary Capital Raising Review, which proposed reforms to the capital raising process for listed companies. He delivered the Review to the Chancellor in July 2022. He also advised Lord Hill on the UK Listing Review in 2021. Mr. Austin received a CBE in the King’s 2024 New Year Honours List for services to the economy.

Mark Austin

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Mark Austin

Will Farrell

Federated Hermes
Assistant Manager, EOS
London

Will co-leads the climate change theme at EOS, the stewardship arm of Federated Hermes Limited, where his coverage includes companies in Europe and Australia, primarily financial services, energy, chemicals, and materials. Prior to joining EOS, Will worked in the energy and infrastructure investment banking team at Macquarie Capital, where he specialised in renewable energy. Before that, Will held a number of roles across the UK climate policy space, including as a parliamentary researcher for Rt. Hon. Chris Skidmore MP on climate and energy issues, and as a climate and economic policy analyst at a diplomatic institute. He was appointed as a voluntary adviser to Rt. Hon. Alok Sharma MP, President of COP26, on preparations for COP26 after co-founding a Westminster climate policy group in 2019, which engaged MPs and Members of the House of Lords to advocate for more ambition on climate action in public policy. Will has a Bachelor’s degree (1st Class Honours) in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.