Profile: Dr Charles Gurdon, Managing Director

Joining Menas Services Ltd in 1980 as a senior researcher, Charles Gurdon worked on international border disputes and other arbitration cases. In 1988, when the company diversified into consulting work for corporate clients and newsletter publishing, Gurdon helped found the Menas Associates subsidiary and became its managing director. Since then he has run the company's consulting portfolio and publication stable, and he oversaw the restructuring in which Menas Associates become the parent company of the Menas group.

Charles holds a PhD from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, where he specialised in the Middle East and Africa. He is the author of two books and numerous reports on Sudan and has been a political commentator on radio and television.