Geoffrey Filkin has worked in all sectors and in many roles, as a CEO, a Government Minister, an adviser to businesses, an experienced chair and a social entrepreneur. 

He proposed and chaired the House of Lords Select Committee on Demographic change; its report, Ready for Ageing graphically set out the opportunities and challenges of longer lives and a larger older population and helped stimulate action by government. In response to Ready for Ageing the Government proposed a new Centre for Ageing Better and Geoffrey Filkin was appointed its Chair in 2013. He founded the Board and the organisation, secured its £50 million Big Lottery endowment and for five years to 2019 supported its growth and its ambitious strategy for change, published in 2018.

In his later career he helped found the New Local Government Network, he founded 2020 Public Services Trust and the Parliament Choir and was a founder trustee of Southbank Sinfonia. He was a Government Minister 2001 -2005, Chair of the Lords Select Committee on Statutory Instruments 2005 – 2009, Committee of the Year 2008, and a member of the Intergenerational Commission 2016 – 2018.