Giles is a Partner of Leaders’ Quest and President of Leaders’ Quest Foundation – USA. He has co-led or participated in Quests to China, India, Brazil, Russia, Turkey, Southern Africa and the USA. He is also a private equity investor in business information companies and a member of Kereitsu Forum, a network of angel investors in early stage companies.
Previously Giles was CEO of LA 411, a specialised yellow pages directory for the film and TV industry, until its sale to Reed in 2000. He began his business career as a strategy consultant with Monitor Group, based in Los Angeles. He holds an MBA from Stanford and read Economics at Queens, Cambridge.
Among his eclectic interests, Giles enjoys mountain biking, antique slot machines, steam trains, skiing and watching Arsenal football (on some weekends). In 2003 his travel book Us versus Them was published by Penguin. The book recounted eight trips to places like Buenos Aires, Glasgow and Istanbul in search of classic football rivalries.
Giles grew up in England and now lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Claire and two children.
Authored Content
Jan 09 2014 Blog Post From India to Africa: A Quest to Learn About Reducing Food Loss As the global development community grapples with an ambitious, but indisputably necessary goal—feeding 9 billion people by the year 2050—the need for an integrated approach to agriculture development has never been more apparent. One of the biggest, most stubborn hurdles is food loss: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that up to a third of food […]