Howard Davies (economist)

Sir Howard Davies in 2008

Sir Howard John Davies (born 12 February 1951) is a British economist. He teaches courses on the regulation of financial markets at Sciences Po and on central banking at the Paris School of International Affairs. Davies is chairman of the Phoenix Group and of the UK Airports Commission. He was appointed Knight Bachelor in 2000.

Life and career

Howard Davies was educated at Bowker Vale County Primary School and Manchester Grammar School, where he was the founder Editor of The Mancunian, before going as an exchange student to the Memorial University of Newfoundland and, as a Postmaster, to Merton College, Oxford University, where he gained an MA in modern history and modern languages. He edited the Cherwell newspaper in 1972. In 1979 he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship to attend the Stanford Graduate School of Business from where he obtained an MS degree in management sciences.

Davies was previously employed by McKinsey and Company and at the Treasury and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which included a posting of Private Secretary to the British Ambassador to France. From 1985 to 1986 he was Special Advisor to Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson. From 1987 to 1992 he was Controller of the Audit Commission. In 1992 he was appointed Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, a position he held until 1995, when he was appointed Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. In 1997 he was asked to set up the Financial Services Authority, where he served as Executive Chairman until 2003.

He was also a non-executive director of GKN between 1989–95, and a member of the International Advisory Board of NatWest Bank from 1991-95. From 1995 to 2004 he was founder Chairman of Employers Forum on Age, a body formed to oppose ageism at work. From 2002 to 2010 he was a Trustee of the Tate Gallery (where he served as interim Chair 2008-09) and has been a member of the governing body of the Royal Academy of Musicsince 2004. He is the Patron of Working Families, a campaigning charity which supports the rights of parents in the workplace. In 2004 he was elected to an Honorary Fellowship of Merton College, Oxford and became an independent Director of Morgan Stanley, where he chairs the Board's Risk Committee. From 2006 to 2010 he was a non-executive Director of Paternoster Ltd. Davies is a member of the advisory board to the China Banking Regulatory Commission (since 2003) and, from 2012, is Chairman of the Advisory Board of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. In 2009 he was appointed as advisor to the Investment Strategy Committee of the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore and in 2011 joined its International Advisory Board. He resigned from both positions in September 2012, on appointment to the chair of the Airports Commission. In 2010 he became a non-executive Director of Prudential plc, and Chair of the Risk Committee. Also in 2011 he joined the board of the Royal National Theatre.

Davies chaired the judges of the Man Booker Prize for fiction in 2007.

Davies features as a character in the David Hare play The Power of Yes which premiered at London's National Theatre in October 2009.

Books and writing

Insignia of Knight Bachelor

Davies has published four books - Chancellors Tales (Polity Press 2006), with co-author David Green, Global Financial Regulation: the Essential Guide (Polity Press 2008), "Banking on the Future: the fall and rise of central banking (Princeton University Press 2010), and "The Financial Crisis: who's to blame" (Polity Press 2010).

Davies writes regularly for The Financial Times, The Times Higher Education Supplement, Project Syndicate and Management Today.

Personal life

Davies is married with two sons. He is a supporter of Manchester City Football Club and the Lancashire County Cricket Club. He plays cricket for Barnes Common and Powerstock and Hooke cricket clubs.

External links

• Column archive at Project Syndicate
• Blog at Financial Times
• Profile at Forbes
• Profile at Global Policy
• Profile at World Economic Forum
• Debrett's People of Today
• Works by or about Howard Davies (economist) in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Political offices
Preceded by John Banham	Director of the Confederation of British Industry 1992 - 95	Succeeded by Adair Turner
Authority control VIAF: 107900210