Alastair Da Costa has been appointed Chair of boutique search firm, Warren Partners, enabling founding Director, Joëlle Warren, to devote more time to her ambassadorial role and development of the firm’s board practice.
Alastair has spent over 20 years practising as an international corporate lawyer and helped with the expansion of the world’s largest law firm, DLA Piper, where he was a global board member and Managing Director for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa.
He has just concluded a one year project as the first Chief Executive of the new Prince’s Trust International, the international subsidiary of the Prince’s Trust charity which focuses on developing youth employment and engagement programmes in countries around the world.
In addition to being responsible for chairing the board, Alastair will work closely with Managing Director, Vicky Lawton, and Joëlle Warren (who remains on the board), as well as other board members, on developing future strategy for Warren Partners. He will also lead the design of Warren Partners’ international strategy.
Says Vicky Lawton, Managing Director, Warren Partners:
“This is a very exciting appointment for us and we are confident that Alastair’s leadership style and experience will help us take significant strides in further developing the business. Alastair’s vision is also aligned to our own principle of delivering ‘leadership consulting with heart, because people matter’.”
Says Alastair Da Costa:
“Warren Partners want to take a longer term view about how they build their client base and their team. I was struck by the focus on both the people and the clients, and am looking forward immensely to working with the team in 2016 and beyond.”
In his spare time Alastair enjoys most sports, particularly football, rugby union and athletics. He is a competitive runner and a licensed athletics coaching assistant and is a non-executive director of the professional rugby union club, Yorkshire Carnegie.
Alastair Da Costa – Further background
Alastair is also Chair of Governors at City and Islington College, London’s leading further education college, a governor of The London School of Economics and an independent member of the Council of the University of Sussex, where he also sits on the Council’s performance committee.
Alastair has previously served as a trustee director of the International Institute for Environment and Development and he was Deputy Chairman and then Director of Marketing of Leeds and Partners the destination marketing and inward investment company for the Leeds City Region. Between 2002-2005 Alastair served as Chairman of Leeds Financial Services Initiative Limited, the member and lobbying company for the financial services sector in the Leeds City Region.
At DLA Piper, Alistair was made Partner in 1995 and he developed a successful mergers and acquisition and corporate finance practice. He subsequently held a number of global board and executive roles including head of the corporate practice group, international head of sectors and managing director for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. In 2011 Alastair led and completed the largest law firm mergers in the Asia Pacific region when DLA Piper merged with its Australian affiliate firm. He remains a consultant with DLA Piper.
Alastair has a law degree from the University of Leeds a master’s degree in Development Management from the London School of Economics and qualified as a solicitor in 1990.