Simon Lowe leads Grant Thornton's large corporate practice and is chairman of the Grant Thornton Governance Institute. He is also lead partner for a number of the firm's larger external audit clients and has more than 25 years' experience in the role of partner delivering audit, advisory, assurance and risk management services to public and larger private companies, during which time he founded the firm's business risk services practice and worked across a wide range of sectors. Simon is the author of Grant Thornton's FTSE 350 Corporate Governance Review, the UK's leading research document into the UK's Code of Corporate Governance and referred to by the FRC in all of its recent reviews of the Code and also by the Walker review. Simon was also a member of the FRC's steering group responsible for the Guidance for Effective Boards issued in March 2011, the replacement for the Higgs guidance.