Howard Davies (LSE)
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
. Davies served as Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science from 2003 to May 2011, having decided to resign from the position on 3 March 2011 following concern over the institution's decision to accept funding from a foundation controlled by the Libyan leader's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, and over the LSE Libya Links
LSE Libya Links
The affair of the LSE Libya Links refers to the various connections that existed between the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Libyan government and its leader Muammar Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. The NGO Gaddafi Foundation pledged to donate £1.5 million over...
. He has previously served as the first chairman of the Financial Services Authority
Financial Services Authority
The Financial Services Authority is a quasi-judicial body responsible for the regulation of the financial services industry in the United Kingdom. Its board is appointed by the Treasury and the organisation is structured as a company limited by guarantee and owned by the UK government. Its main...
.
Life and career
Howard Davies was educated at Bowker Vale County Primary School, Manchester Grammar SchoolManchester Grammar School
The Manchester Grammar School is the largest independent day school for boys in the UK . It is based in Manchester, England...
, the Memorial University of Newfoundland
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Memorial University of Newfoundland, is a comprehensive university located primarily in St...
and Merton College, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, where he gained a First Class MA degree in Modern History and Modern Languages. In 1979 he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship
Harkness Fellowship
The Harkness Fellowships are a programme run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. They were established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several countries to spend time studying in the United States...
to attend Stanford Graduate School of Business
Stanford Graduate School of Business
The Stanford Graduate School of Business is one of the professional schools of Stanford University, in Stanford, California and is broadly regarded as one of the best business schools in the world.The Stanford GSB offers a general management Master of Business Administration degree, the Sloan...
from where he obtained an MS degree in management sciences.
Davies was executive chairman of the Financial Services Authority
Financial Services Authority
The Financial Services Authority is a quasi-judicial body responsible for the regulation of the financial services industry in the United Kingdom. Its board is appointed by the Treasury and the organisation is structured as a company limited by guarantee and owned by the UK government. Its main...
from 1997-2003. He was the first chairman of the FSA, the single financial regulator for the UK financial sector. He formed it from nine previously separate bodies. He was deputy governor of the Bank of England
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...
from 1995 to 1997, when the incoming Labour government asked him to create the new regulator.
On the 1st of October 2003, Davies left the FSA to become director of the London School of Economics. He tendered his resignation in March 2011, in the wake of publicity over donations made to the school by a charity associated with a son of the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
. The School however asked him to stay on until a suitable replacement is found, and he left office on 1 May 2011, following the appointment of Professor Judith Rees as interim director.
Davies was previously employed by McKinsey and Company
McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company, Inc. is a global management consulting firm that focuses on solving issues of concern to senior management. McKinsey serves as an adviser to many businesses, governments, and institutions...
and was Special Advisor to the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
. He was also previously employed at the Treasury
HM Treasury
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...
and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
, which included a posting of Private Secretary to the British Ambassador to France. Davies served for three years as Director General of the Confederation of British Industry
Confederation of British Industry
The Confederation of British Industry is a British not for profit organisation incorporated by Royal charter which promotes the interests of its members, some 200,000 British businesses, a figure which includes some 80% of FTSE 100 companies and around 50% of FTSE 350 companies.-Role:The CBI works...
. From 1987 to 1992 he was Controller of the Audit Commission. He was also a non-executive director of GKN
GKN
GKN plc is a multinational automotive and aerospace components company headquartered in Redditch, United Kingdom. The company was formerly known as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds and can trace its origins back to 1759 and the birth of the Industrial Revolution.GKN is listed on the London Stock...
between 1989-1995, and a member of the International Advisory Board of Natwest bank from 1991-95. From 1995 to 2004 he was founder Chairman of the 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 2008-9) and is a member of the governing body of the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
. 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
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
and became a non-executive Director of Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City serving a diversified group of corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley also operates in 36 countries around the world, with over 600 offices and a workforce of over 60,000....
. He was appointed to the Board of Paternoster Limited in 2006 as a non-executive Director. Davies is also a member of the advisory boards of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (since 2003) and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (since 2004). In 2009 he was appointed as an advisor to the Investment Committee of the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore.
He chaired the judges of the Man Booker Prize for fiction in 2007. He is a supporter of Manchester City and Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
. He plays cricket for Barnes Common CC and Powerstock and Hooke CC.
Books and writing
Davies has published four books - Chancellors Tales (Polity Press 2006), with co-author David Green, Global Financial Regulation: the Essential Guide (Polity Press 2008) and "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).He writes regularly for The Financial Times, The Times, The Times Higher Education Supplement and Management Today.
Davies features as a character in the David Hare
David Hare (playwright)
Sir David Hare is an English playwright and theatre and film director.-Early life:Hare was born in St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, East Sussex, the son of Agnes and Clifford Hare, a sailor. He was educated at Lancing, an independent school in West Sussex, and at Jesus College, Cambridge...
play The Power of Yes
The Power of Yes
The Power of Yes is a 2009 play by English playwright David Hare. It is the story of a dramatist seeking to understand the financial crisis of 2007.-External links:*...
which premiered at London's National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
in October 2009.
He was appointed Knight Bachelor
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
in the Queen's Official Birthday
Queen's Official Birthday
The Queen's Official Birthday is the selected day on which the birthday of the monarch of Commonwealth realms is officially celebrated in Commonwealth countries and in Fiji, which is now a republic. It is an invention of the early 20th century...
Honours 2000.
External links
- Column archive at Project SyndicateProject SyndicateProject Syndicate is an international not-for-profit newspaper syndicate and association of newspapers. It distributes commentaries and analysis by experts, activists, Nobel laureates, statesmen, economists, political thinkers, business leaders and academics to its member publications, and...
- Blog at Financial TimesFinancial TimesThe Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
- Profile at ForbesForbesForbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
- Profile at Global PolicyGlobal PolicyGlobal Policy is a peer-reviewed academic journal based at the London School of Economics and Political Science focusing on the "point where ideas and policy meet", published in association with Wiley-Blackwell....
- Profile at World Economic ForumWorld Economic ForumThe World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
- Lord Woolf's Inquiry into the LSE and Libya, March, 2011. Make a submission.