Roger Bootle

Managing Director, Capital Economics

Biography

Roger Bootle runs the consultancy, Capital Economics, which specialises in macroeconomics and the economics of the property market. He is also Economic Adviser to Deloitte and a Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Treasury Committee. He was formerly Group Chief Economist of HSBC and used to be on the Chancellor’s panel of Independent Economic Advisers.

He has written many books including The Trouble with Markets, which analyses the deep causes of the recent financial crisis.

Randy Kroszner

Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Former Governor, Federal Reserve System

Biography

Randall S. Kroszner served as a Governor of the Federal Reserve System from 2006 until 2009. During this time he chaired the committee on Supervision and Regulation of Banking Institutions and the committee on Consumer and Community Affairs. He represented both the Federal Reserve Board on the Financial Stability Forum and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.

Prior to this role Dr. Kroszner was a professor of Economics at the Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago where he is now returning to assume a newly-created chair titled the Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics.

Andrew Milligan

Head of Global Strategy, Standard Life

Biography

He joined Standard Life Investments in 2000 as Global Investment Strategist before being appointed Head of Global Strategy in 2001.

Prior to this, he worked for HM Treasury and Lloyds Bank as an Economic Adviser, and Smith New Court as International Economist. In 1994 he was appointed Chief Economist with New Japan Securities Europe followed by Morley Fund Management in 1996 where he took up the position of Director of Economic Research & Business Risk.

Richard Barkham

Group Research Director, Grosvenor Group

Biography

Richard is Research Director for Grosvenor. Grosvenor is a privately owned multinational property company with £12.6bn of real estate under management and offices in 17 cities. Richard is responsible for the group’s team of 12 economists and for long term planning and capital allocation.

Richard has a PhD in economics from the University of Reading and is a Chartered Surveyor. Prior to his move to the private sector, Richard was Reader in Finance at the University of Reading. He has published numerous papers on the financial economics of real estate and a book on regional economic development.

Paul Tucker

Deputy Governor, Financial Stability, Bank of England

Biography

He was appointed Deputy Governor, Financial Stability, Bank of England in 2009 and is currently also a Member of the Monetary Policy Committee, the Bank’s Court of Directors and the Governor's Executive Team.

He joined the Bank of England in 1993, and has since held the roles of Head of Gilt-Edged & Money Markets Division, Head of Monetary Assessment and Strategy Division and Deputy Director, Financial Stability. He was also closely involved with the Bank's Financial Stability Review. From 2002 until now he was Executive Director for Markets.

Sir John Bourn

Former Comptroller and Auditor General, National Audit Office

Biography

Sir John spent 30 years in the Civil Service, mainly in the Ministry of Defence, Northern Ireland Office (Belfast & London) and Treasury before taking up the role of Comptroller and Auditor General of the U.K which he held between 1988 to 2008. He was also the first Auditor General of Wales from 1999 to 2005 and the Prime Minister’s Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Financial Interests from 2006-2007.

Graeme Leach

Chief Economist & Director of Policy, Institute of Directors

Biography

Graeme Leach is Chief Economist and Director of Policy at the Institute of Directors, which he joined in August 1998. He is also visiting professor of economic policy at the University of Lincoln.

In 2006 he was appointed to the Shadow Chancellor’s Commission for Tax reform.

Prior to joining the IoD he was economics director at the Henley Centre, analysing future economic and social change. In 1998 he was awarded the WPP Atticus Award for original published thinking on futures issues.

Previously Graeme has worked as economic adviser to the Scottish Provident Investment Group and as a senior economic consultant with Pieda.

He is a frequent media commentator and in recent years has spoken at conferences in the USA, China, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Sweden, Ireland, Belgium, Greece, Taiwan and even Zimbabwe!

Danny Alexander

Chair of the Manifesto Group and MP for Inverness, Liberal Democrats

Biography

Danny Alexander entered Parliament in 2005. Prior to this Danny was Director of Communications at the European Movement followed by Head of Communications for Cairngorms National Park.

He joined the shadow Work and Pensions team in 2005, becoming spokesperson for disability-related issues and sitting on the Scottish Affairs Committee. He was appointed Shadow Minister for Social Exclusion in 2007 followed by Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. He is now chief of staff to Nick Clegg and is leading the preparation of the party's manifesto.

Steve Baker

PPC Wycombe, Conservative Party, Co- Founder, Cobden Centre

Biography

Steve Baker is Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Wycombe and Corporate Affairs Director of The Cobden Centre, an educational charity for honest money and social progress, which aims to be the UK home of Austrian-School economics. Steve was previously a Royal Air Force engineer officer and a consulting software engineer, notably working at Lehman Brothers as Chief Architect of two global programmes when boom turned to bust. He has also worked at regulators and other banks. Having seen two systemic crises which could be predicted by the monetary theory of the trade cycle, he decided to promote it.

Gerard Lyons

Chief Economist & Group Head of Global Research, Standard Chartered Bank

Biography

Dr Gerard Lyons is an expert on the world economy, international financial system, macroeconomic policy and global markets in his role as Chief Economist and Group Head of Global Research at Standard Chartered. Lyons is also an Economic Advisor to the Board and is a member of the Bank’s Executive Forum.

His previous positions include Chief Economist at DKB International, Consultant to the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and Chief UK Economist at Swiss Bank Corporation. His PhD from the University of London is on, "Testing the efficiency of financial futures markets".

Ben Broadbent

Global Investment Research, Goldman Sachs

Biography

Ben is a senior economist covering the United Kingdom and continental Europe. He joined the firm in 2000 and was named managing director in 2006.

He has worked extensively on issues affecting the European economies, including EMU, corporate investment and profitability, consumer behavior and the financing of the government deficit. He has been an expert witness for the UK Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee.

Previously, Ben was an assistant professor of Economics at Columbia University in New York, where his research was concerned with questions in monetary economics and economic growth. He has also worked at H.M.Treasury and the Bank of England.

Ben has a PhD from Harvard University, where he was a Fulbright Scholar, and a first-class honours degree from Cambridge University.