Lionel Barber

Lionel Barber was the editor of the Financial Times from 2005 to 2020. Previously he edited the US edition of the paper, served as editor of the European edition, as well as News Editor and Washington Correspondent. He took the helm of the 130-year-old institution as it was struggling to position itself in the digital world, and turned it into a global business news brand.

Beginning his career as a reporter and feature writer at The Scotsman he left Edinburgh to join The Sunday Times as Business Correspondent. He then moved to the FT where he would stay for over two decades. Starting out as Washington Correspondent and then US Editor, then returning to Europe as Brussels Bureau Chief.

As well as his journalism, Lionel is the author of a number of books including Britain and the New Agenda, Defence Beat - the Media and the Military, Without Honour - The Westland Affair and The Price of Truth - the Story of Reuters’ Millions. He has also published articles across the US and Europe in newspapers and journals and is a regular contributor on TV and radio. Retiring from the FT after 15 years as editor he also wrote of his experiences at the paper, the many world-shaping events he covered, and the leaders he'd interviewed from bank CEOs to US Presidents in The Powerful and the Damned.

Lionel has lectured widely on US foreign policy, transatlantic relations and the European Union in the US and in Europe. He was visiting scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and at European University Institute in Florence, as well as appearances at Harvard, Stanford and The Council of Foreign Relations. He was even charged with briefing President George W Bush ahead of his first trip to Europe. In presentations Lionel looks at the business, economic and political climate and what the future may hold.