Simon White

Deputy General Counsel, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation

Currently based in: London, UK

Master of Studies Historical Research (1997)

Talk to me about: Law; Ethics; Technology; Management

My undergraduate and postgraduate studies were focused on medieval history. St Cross provided me with a wonderful home to explore not only my academic interests in twelfth-century Christian-Jewish debate in northern Europe but to explore so much that makes me who I am today. One particular joy was in co-founding the queer theory forum.

On leaving Oxford, I took moved from studying History to Law and within a few years found myself as a trainee at Clifford Chance in London, eventually qualifying into the Amsterdam office where I stayed for almost four years. After that I moved to Brown Rudnick and then Morgan Lewis. During my early legal career I was focused on intellectual property and information technology law though now as an in-house lawyer, my practice is far wider and I balance being a lawyer against being a senior business leader to move the business forward.

My current role is as deputy general counsel of IQVIA (NYSE: IQV), a global provider of clinical trials, data and public health. Day to day I run a legal team of about seventy lawyers, located in over twenty five countries, supporting the business across Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. The work ranges from global sanctions, commercial contracting, litigation, employment issues, privacy, anti-bribery and corruption, tax, acquisitions.

Increasingly, I spend more time on ethical debates, including areas around the impact of privacy on drug development, machine learning vs artificial intelligence. At IQVIA I am the executive sponsor of the LGBTQIA+ affinity group. Prior to IQVIA, I lead the legal team at Cognizant, a global IT services company. Outside paid employment, I work queer choirs around the world to sing for equality.

If you would like to be put in touch with Simon, please contact development@stx.ox.ac.uk