Sharon Bowles was an MEP from 2005 to 2014 and chaired the European Parliament’s powerful Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee for the entire 7th legislature (2009 – 2014). This put her at the heart of negotiating the huge range of financial services legislation following on from the financial crisis as well as the highly political economic governance and banking union legislation stemming from the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. Alongside her in depth, hands-on engagement in amendments and key-note speeches this regularly saw her listed as one of the most influential people in financial services legislation. Sharon also served on the legal affairs committee and was a significant influence on legislation for accounting and audit.
She recently became a non-executive director of the London Stock Exchange Group.
Sharon has an academic and professional background in engineering, physics, mathematics and intellectual property and was a partner in Bowles Horton, a firm of European Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys that she founded in 1981. In that role she acted for a range of leading technology companies in UK, US, Germany, Japan, Australia and Norway and has extensive experience of commercial negotiation and legal systems.