Howard Davies (economist)

Sir Howard John Davies (born 12 February 1951) is a British economist and author who is the current Chairman of NatWest Group and the former Director of the London School of Economics.[1]

Sir Howard Davies
Davies in 2008
Chairman of NatWest Group
Assumed office
1 September 2015
Personal details
Born (1951-02-12) 12 February 1951
Blackley, Manchester, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materMemorial University
Merton College, Oxford
Stanford Business School

He previously served as the first chairman of the Financial Services Authority. Davies was chairman of the Phoenix Group and, until July 2015, chaired the UK Airports Commission.[1] In February 2015 he was appointed Chairman of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group taking up the role from September 2015. RBS Group was re-named NatWest Group in 2020.

Early life

Howard Davies born in Blackley, Manchester England.

He was educated at Bowker Vale County Primary School and the 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 postgraduate, to Merton College, University of Oxford, where he gained a master of arts degree 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 in California where he obtained a master of science degree in management sciences.[2]

Career

Davies was employed by McKinsey and Company from 1982 to 1987 after working at the Treasury and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which included a posting of Private Secretary to the British Ambassador to France.[3] From 1985–86 he was Special Advisor to Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson. From 1987–92 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 Davies was appointed Chairman of the newly established Financial Services Authority, serving until 2003.[1]

From 2003 to 2011 Davies served as Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. He stepped down from the position on 3 March 2011 following concern over the institution's decision to accept funding from a foundation controlled by the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif, and other LSE Libya Links.[4][5][6]

Davies was a non-executive director of GKN between 1989 and 1995, and a member of the International Advisory Board of National Westminster Bank from 1991–95. From 1995–2004 he was founder Chairman of Employers Forum on Age, a body formed to oppose ageism at work. From 2002–10 he was a Trustee of the Tate Gallery (where he served as interim Chair 2008-09), and was a member of the governing body of the Royal Academy of Music from 2004–13. He is 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 chaired the Board's Risk Committee. From 2006–10, Davies served as a non-executive Director of Paternoster Ltd. Since 2003, he has held membership in the advisory board of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, and, since 2012, has chaired the Advisory Board of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. He became chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group in September 2015.

In 2009 Davies was appointed as advisor to the Investment Strategy Committee of GIC Private Limited, formerly known as Government of Singapore Investment Corporation. Two years later he joined its International Advisory Board. He resigned from both positions in September 2012, on appointment to the chair of the Airports Commission (GIC Private Limited is a part owner of Heathrow). In 2010 he became a non-executive Director of Prudential plc, and Chair of the Risk Committee. In 2011 he joined the board of the Royal National Theatre. From 2012 to 2015 Davies was a member of the Advisory Board of the SWIFT Institute. Davies is a Council Member of the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research in Singapore.[7]

Other

Davies chaired the judges of the Man Booker Prize for fiction in 2007. He was appointed Chairman of the Trustees of the London Library in November 2015.[8]

He features as a character in the David Hare play The Power of Yes which premiered at the London National Theatre in October 2009.[9]

Honours

Davies was appointed a Knight Bachelor in 2000.

Books
Insignia of Knight Bachelor

Davies has published five 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)
  • The Financial Crisis: Who's to Blame" (Polity Press 2010)
  • Can Financial Markets be Controlled? (Polity Press 2015)

Davies writes regularly for The Financial Times, Times Higher Education, Project Syndicate[10] and Management Today.

Personal life

Davies is married to Prue Keely and has two sons.[11]

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 club.[2]

gollark: The entire mobile market is fairly bee but I think much of this was an inevitable consequence of mass-marketization and vendors' desire for control.
gollark: Too bad, you are to.
gollark: Rust.
gollark: osmarksISA idea: all registers hold 40-bit-per-component quaternions.
gollark: Actually, what if there's a belt of stacks somehow? Hmm.

References
  1. "Sir Howard Davies profile". gov.uk. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  2. Bloxham, Andy (4 March 2011). "Sir Howard Davies profile: distinguished economist with impressive CV". The Telegraph. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  3. "Howard Davies, Alessandro Profumo and Peter Sands to Participate in WSJ's Future of Finance Initiative". Mckinsey & Co. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  4. Davies, Howard. "LSE Director steps down". LSE.ac.uk. London School of Economics and Political Science.
  5. Davies, Howard. "The Latest Qaddafi Casualty Is The Head of the London School of Economics". Business Insider.
  6. Davies, Howard. "Institutions Scramble to Determine Libya Entanglements". The Wall Street Journal.
  7. "Council & Executive Committee". abfer.org. Asian Bureau of Finance And Economic Research. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  8. "Trustees". London Library. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  9. "Howard Davies on watching himself in 'The Power of Yes'". Management Today. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  10. Davies, Howard (26 December 2016). "The Threat To Global Banking Standards". project-syndicate.org. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  11. "Howard Davies, Sir". Personally Speaking Bureau. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
Academic offices
Preceded by
Anthony Giddens		 Director of the London School of Economics
2003–2011		 Succeeded by
Judith Rees
Business positions
Preceded by
John Banham		 Director of the Confederation of British Industry
1992–1995		 Succeeded by
Adair Turner
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