123rd Business Lunch
19th November 2025 from 12:15pm — 3:00pm • Vintners' Hall, 68 Upper Thames St., London EC4V 3BG
Please note that bookings are now closed.
Our 123rd Business lunch will be held at Vintners’ Hall on Wednesday 19th November 2025 with guest speaker, Charles Akle.
About Charles Akle:
Charles Akle is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and was awarded the prestigious Hallett Prize, in addition to a number of awards and prizes in his undergraduate career. He trained in Medicine at Guy’s Hospital in London and researched into transplantation and immunology early in his career, obtaining his Master of Surgery degree. This set the scene for his return to active medical research after retirement.
He was a prominent London-based surgeon and a pioneer in the development of laparoscopic surgery, helping to train many of today’s excellent surgeons in Europe. He was also active in establishing and promoting a better relationship between the private and public health sectors in the UK, building on the fact that many new developments in medicine, such as In vitro Fertilisation and laparoscopic surgery, began in the private sector.
After retiring from clinical practice in 2007, he established and was the founder of a private biopharmaceutical company developing novel immunotherapeutic products. His clinical experience in oncology and the relationship with immunity has laid the foundations for his current interests which relate to chronic inflammation as related to cancer and to stress, the microbiome and the gut/brain axis.
Dr Akle is now active in consultancy work specializing in immunotherapy in the biotechnology arena, but also in the fields of wellbeing and the prevention of stress. Dr Akle believes in strongly in excellence, legacy, charity, and service to one’s fellow man. He dislikes overburdensome bureaucracy and loves to challenge scientific dogma!
Celebrate our Newest Armed Forces Affiliation UK Space Command
The 123rd Business Lunch marks the formal affiliation between the WCIT and UK Space Command and we are delighted that Major General Paul Tedman CBE (Commander of UK Space Command) will attending and exchanging letters of affiliation with our Master (quite a coup for our Livery).
As we know, daily lives around the world rely on satellites and systems in space. These also underpin military operations across land, sea, air and cyberspace.
UK Space Command is a joint command staffed by personnel from all the armed forces and civil servants. Their mission is to protect and defend UK and allied interests in, from, and to space (certainly a far reaching responsibility). Please join us to mark the start of another significant link between WCIT and our armed forces.
Event Details
Location:
Vintners’ Hall, 68 Upper Thames St., London EC4V 3BG
Dress Code: Business Attire
Ticket price: £130 inc. VAT.
Prospective members please book via booking@wcit.org.uk
Download Flyers