Jan Lasik

National Trust

As general counsel (GC) of Europe’s largest conservation charity, the National Trust, Jan Lasik sits at the intersection of charity and commercial law. Having joined the Trust as GC in 2018, Lasik has been instrumental in modernising the charity, which has just been through its toughest period in recent years.

As well as having to contend with the Covid-19 pandemic threatening the Trust’s financial pipeline, the organisation has been engaged in a culture battle with some of its own members. Lasik is at the centre of this very public debate, with concerns raised when the Trust produced a report examining its properties’ relationship to the slave trade and colonialism. It was Lasik who responded when a complaint was made to the Charity Commission, which went on to exonerate the Trust last March. And it was Lasik who was instrumental in appointing the Trust’s new chair, Rene Olivieri, late last year and who will also be responsible for getting him up to speed.

An outdoors person with a passion for hiking, trail running and surfing, Lasik is a key influencer when it comes to the country’s cultural heritage and the National Trust is all the better for it.