Adair Turner, Baron Turner of Ecchinswell
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Jonathan Adair Turner, Baron Turner of Ecchinswell (born 5 October 1955, Ipswich) is a British businessman, academic and chair of the Financial Services Authority. He was formerly chair of the Pensions Commission. He has described himself in a BBC HARDtalk interview with Stephen Sackur as a 'technocrat'.
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[edit] Early life
He grew up in Crawley and East Kilbride (both new towns - his father Geoffrey was a University of Liverpool-educated town planner), and initially attended Hutchesons' Grammar School, then moved to Argyll. He attended Glenalmond College and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he took a double first in History and Economics and became President of the Cambridge Union. He was also Chairman of the University's Conservative Association. He joined the SDP in 1981.
[edit] Business career
He taught economics part time after university. His career with BP started in 1979 and he worked for Chase Manhattan Bank from 1979-82. He became a director of McKinsey & Co in 1994 after joining in 1982.[1] Turner became Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) from 1995-9. From 2000-06 he was Vice-Chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe [2].
He lectures part time at the London School of Economics.
In 2002, he chaired a UK government enquiry into pensions. In 2007, he succeeded Frances Cairncross as Chairman of the Economic and Social Research Council and Baroness Jay as Chair of the Overseas Development Institute's Council.
In 2008 he was appointed Chairman of the UK Government's nascent Committee on Climate Change.
On 29 May 2008, it was announced that he would take over as Chairman of the Financial Services Authority[3]. He took up this post in September 2008 for a five year term to succeed Callum McCarthy.
[edit] Financial Services Authority
Turner defended the actions of the regulator on the BBC's Andrew Marr show on 15th February 2009. His comments were that other regulatory bodies throughout the world, which had a variety of different structures and which are perceived either as heavy touch or light touch also failed to predict the economic collapse. In line with the other regulators, the FSA had failed intellectually by focusing too much on processes and procedures rather than looking at the bigger economic picture. In response as to why Sir James Crosby had been appointed deputy chairman when his bank HBOS had been highlighted by the FSA as using risky lending practises, Lord Turner said that they had files on almost every financial institution indicating a degree of risk.[4]
He did not apologise for the actions of the FSA which had overseen the near total collapse of several major banks and accepted that his organisation had foreseen the likely consequences for Lloyds Bank of its merger with the ailing HBOS arranged in September 2008. Despite raging controversy over bonuses for the struggling Lloyds Bank employees he sought to justify upcoming bonuses averaging 15 per cent for his approximate 2,500 staff, arguing "If you're saying we should now cut the bonuses (of FSA employees), you're saying you should cut their pay by 15%".[5]
[edit] Honoured
On 7 September 2005 he was created a life peer as Baron Turner of Ecchinswell. Ecchinswell is in the County of Hampshire, and his award in recognition of his public service to the nation (he has a cottage in Ecchinswell).
[edit] Personal life
In 1985 he married Orna NÃ Chionna, whom he met at McKinsey. She comes from Ireland, and was born c. 1956. She is now Chair of the council of the Soil Association and a non-executive director of Northern Foods. They have two daughters (born November 1988 and September 1991), and live in Kensington, London, UK.
[edit] Current Media Interest
Lord Turner's unstinting criticism of the regulatory system shouldn't have surprised too many. After all, he was never going to blame the bankers, having been one of them himself until not too long ago. - quoted from Private Eye, No. 1231- 6 March – 19 March 2009.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Biography of Adair Turner at the former Pensions Commission
- Announcement of his introduction at the House of Lords House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 12 October 2005
- Times profile 4 December 2005
- Times article 25 November 2005
- Guardian profile 25 November 2005
- Evening Standard profile 7 February 2003
- [www.private-eye.co.uk]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Howard Davies |
Director of the Confederation of British Industry 1995–1999 |
Succeeded by Digby Jones |
