Adair Turner

Biography

Adair Turner served as the Chair of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the regulator for the financial services industry. A respected economist, he played a key part in the UK’s response to the financial crisis and in designing global regulation. He is a noted expert on the global financial system, the Chinese economy, and macro prudential regulation.

Starting out in business, Adair became a Partner as the consultancy firm McKinsey, founding and leading their Eastern Europe and Russia practices. He went on to become Director General of the CBI, Vice-Chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe, and then a Non-Executive Director of Standard Chartered before heading the FSA.

Adair chaired the FSA in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis. He rebuilt their reputation and led negotiations with the City and with regulators worldwide. He also produced the independent Turner Review into the banking system, espousing an urgent change to global regulation, and he remains an advocate of central banks directly funding government spending.

As well as his work with the financial regulator Adair has chaired official committees on climate change, pensions, and low pay, and now serves as chair of the Energy Transitions Committee. Leaving the FSA after its replacement by the Prudential Regulation Authority he became Senior Fellow and Chair of the Governing Board of George Sorros’ think-tank the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

Adair’s acclaimed books on banking and the financial system include Between Debt and the Devil: Money, Credit, and Fixing Global Finance and Economics after the Crisis – Objectives and Means, both examining the causes, effects and potential solutions to the global financial crisis.

Adair has held non-executive roles at Seimens, United Business Media, and new challenger bank OakNorth. He is Chairman of insurance company Chubb Europe and has served as Chairman of the Overseas Development Institute. His academic roles include Visiting Professorships at the London School of Economics, the Cass Business School, and the International Center for Islamic Finance (INCEIF) in Kuala Lumpur. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Financial Studies in Frankfurt and a Visiting Fellow at the People’s Bank of China School of Finance, Tsinghua University.