Economics, Finance & Business
Ian Hay Davison (CFF 1957-58) All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, Humanities, Up to 1959
CBE FCA graduated from the LSE in 1953 and then qualified as a chartered accountant in 1956. Having taken third place in the national exam his former LSE tutor suggested he apply for a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship. Accompanied by his wife he set off for the University of Michigan. He was then 26 and took the prelims for a PhD in Accounting in the Business School in one year but never completed the thesis. This was followed by a two -month internship on computers on Wall Street and a wonderful three month tour of 40 of the then 48 States. Returning to the UK in 1959 he joined the infant UK firm of Arthur Andersen rising to managing partner in 1966. In 1983 at the prompting of the Governor of the Bank of England he left AA and for the next 17 years became a financial services regulator. His roles included CEO of Lloyd’s of London, Chairman of the Securities Review Committee in Hong Kong, ExecuChairman of National Mortgage Bank (a failed bank being run down by the Bank of England) and Chairman of the Securities Regulator in Dubai. He enjoyed other roles: a founding director of “the Independent”; Chairman of BHS, Habitat and Mothercare; Director of Cadbury Schweppes; Chairman of Sadler’s Wells and a director of the Royal Opera House. He retired in 2004 at the age of 73, but carried on as Chairman of Ruffer, the fund managers until 2011 when he was 80.
Last updated: 6th December 2018
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Prof Robert Cassen (CFF 1959-61) All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, Higher Education, International Affairs, Up to 1959
OBE studied classics and philosophy at Oxford, and wanted to convert to economics – Harkness allowed him to do it. With a year in Berkeley and one in Harvard, he had the qualifications to start teaching development economics at the London School of Economics, simultaneously writing his thesis and getting his PhD from Harvard a little later. He taught at LSE, Sussex, and Oxford, and had years off working with the British aid programme on and in India; with the World Bank; and the staff of the Brandt Commission, the ‘Independent Commission on International Development Issues’. His academic best-seller was Does Aid Work?, written with a team of fellow economists. It was translated into several languages, and led to work with various development agencies. Years later he switched to education research. His last book, co-authored with two other researchers, was published in 2015, a research review mainly about England – Making a Difference in Education: What the evidence says. It taught him how small a part evidence plays in the making of English educational policy. Most recently he moved sideways again, working with a young choirmaster to produce a website about Renaissance Sacred Music, www.golden-age-music.com – launched in the summer of 2018. He says he owes so much to Harkness: his Fellowship opened the door to a life combining academe and practical involvement in the developing world. If there is anyone still around from the era of the Foundation that changed his life, he’d like to say a big Thank you.
Last updated: 18th November 2018
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André Lévy-Lang (HF 1963 - 65) 1960s, All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths
was invited with other young Europeans to attend a month long summer seminar, the ‘Salzburg Seminar in American Studies’, some time after graduating from Ecole Polytechnique in 1958. This probably led in 1963 to the Harkness Foundation offering him a fellowship . As he had always been interested in Finance and Economics, he and his wife took this opportunity, and he applied to Stanford to work on a PhD in these fields. After two wonderful years on campus, and back in France after completing his thesis, Andre discovered that his French and American degrees did not open the doors of the French financial establishment of the sixties, so he went back to an engineering career with Schlumberger. In 1974, the right door opened at last and he joined Compagnie Bancaire, a maverick banking group which pioneered modern retail finance in France. He became its CEO in 1982, then in 1990 the CEO of its major shareholder, Banque Paribas, an investment bank. In 1999, they were acquired by BNP to create BNPParibas, still the leading bank in Europe, and he retired. Andre’s third career, since 2000, has been as an advisor or mentor to various boards or executives, a teacher in Finance at Dauphine University and the founder and chairman of a research network, the Institut Louis Bachelier, which channels mostly private funds to over 40 research projects in Finance, Economics, Demography, Energy, Climate and Data, in the main French universities and graduate schools.
Last updated: 19th January 2021
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Roy Williams (HF 1963-64) 1960s, All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, Politics & Public Services
CB graduated in 1956 with a degree in economics from Liverpool University and was successful in the Civil Service Administrative Class competition in the same year. He joined the then Ministry of Power and served in Divisions responsible for different nationalised industries. He was awarded a Harkness Fellowship in 1963 which he spent at the University of Chicago and later University of California (Berkeley) researching the American approach to regulating public utilities. In the US these are mostly privately owned in contrast to the UK where at that time, they were in public ownership. On his return to the UK he served as Principal Private Secretary to successive Secretaries if State for Industry, including Tony Benn during the 1975 EEC referendum, and Eric Varley, and then headed the Division responsible for the Post Office and telecommunications. Later, as a Deputy Secretary (Director General), he was responsible for international trade policy, DTI relations with the EEC (now EU) and the creation of the EEC single market. He subsequently moved to take responsibility for industrial policy in DTI, which involved the 1980’s programme of privatising state owned industries. His time in the US studying the American regulatory approach was highly relevant at this time. His last Civil Service post gave him responsibility for regional policy, the promotion of enterprise and innovation and inward investment. He retired in 1993 from when he chaired the European Eureka programme, which is designed to encourage collaboration in R and D between European enterprises, was a member of the Design Council and a Trustee of various Charities, including chairing a charity caring for disabled children. He was made a Companion of the Bath (CB) in 1988.
Last updated: 25th May 2018
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Professor Christopher Kendall (HF 1966 - 68) 1960s, All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, Higher Education, Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths
studied in Austin, Texas. Some 400 applied for Harkness Fellowships that year, and he was among the 40 who were selected for interviews for 25 Fellowships. Knowing the names of the committee he identified their professions and prepared for the interview by guessing at the style of questions he might be asked. He recalls that the committee faced him centred around the chairman across a long oak table. Chris was on an isolated single chair opposite, and on the table in front of him was a slip of paper with the names of those facing him. When questioned, his fingers and eyes on the paper, he knew the questioner, and framed his answers accordingly. The interview became a competition among some of the committee members to ask the best questions. His tactics, recognized by the committee, led them to enjoy challenging him. For example one of them proposed that as a geologist he might prefer a map on his wall but he replied, “No, I would prefer a Goya”. The committee then spent time discussing a current exhibition of Goya. He was accepted as a Fellow and spent his two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship at UT Texas working with Prof. Folk on the Geology of West Texas. For details of the remainder of his eclectic career in academia and the oil industry as a geologist; see here.
Last updated: 20th September 2021
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Nicholas Falk (HF 1967-69) 1960s, All Harkness Stories, Creative Arts, Design & Architecture, Economics, Finance & Business, International Affairs
worked on product development for Ford to learn about successful multi-national companies, after doing PPE at Oxford. His thought that there must be better management techniques to explain why the UK economy lagged behind the USA, took him to Stanford Business School in California. However, he found it was the culture that explained business success at the expense of hollowing out of cities. Actively involved in student politics, he helped the spin off of Stanford Research Institute from the university to cut links with the Defence Department. Returning with an MBA, he spent three years at McKinsey. This was followed by a doctorate at the London School of Economics on how towns and cities develop; an action research project in Rotherhithe in London’s Docklands, tested out ideas for reusing old industrial buildings inspired by what he had seen in San Francisco. Always keen to link academic research to practical applications, in 1976 he founded URBED (Urban and Economic Development), which offers practical solutions to urban regeneration and local economic development. He recently published a report on the application of smart city principles to London. In 2014 URBED won the Wolfson Economics Prize for showing how to build garden cities that were visionary, viable and popular. He is currently focusing on two projects: Oxford Futures on how to double the size of the city maintaining its position as a knowledge hub and applying ‘smarter urbanisation’ principles to the growth of medium sized cities in Tamil Nadu, India.
Last updated: 25th May 2018
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Bruno Weymuller (HF 1971-72) 1970s, All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business
was a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole des Mines de Paris when he awarded a French Harkness Fellowship. It took him to the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he obtained a Master of Science. Robert Solow supervised his thesis, on “Control theory and macroeconomic consequences”. Back in France he joined in the civil service. In 1978 he was appointed to the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, Raymond Barre, as counselor for Industry and Scientific Research. In 1981, he moved to the international oil major Elf Aquitaine (now Total). There he occupied different management positions in the Upstream and Finance Divisions, ending as executive vice-president for strategy and risk assessment, and a member of the Group Executive Committee. For his various contacts in industrial and financial circles in the United States, over many years, he benefited greatly from the experience he had acquired as a student at MIT and travelling from coast to coast during the summer of 1972, with two English Fellows, both still very good friends. He remains deeply grateful to the Foundation for this exceptional transatlantic opportunity. Now retired, he is, inter alia, member of the bureau of the association “Amis du musée franco-américain de Blérancourt”. This museum, located in the former property of Anne Morgan, daughter of J.P. Morgan, pays tribute to her support for France during the First World War in the form of a medical infrastructure to help the injured, and after 1918 in the form of a decisive contribution to the reconstruction of villages neighbouring Blérancourt. Bruno’s Fellowship experience encouraged his elder son, Charles Henri, to study for a PhD in economics at Harvard, partly thanks to which he now works as an adviser to the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron.
Last updated: 25th May 2018
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Dr Stephen Potter (HF 1973-75) 1970s, All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths
undertook post-doc studies in Physical Organic Chemistry at Yale University with Professor Jerry Berson. He recalls an amusing and challenging interview involving Alistair Burnett, Thea Musgrave and the Vice Chancellor of Manchester University after his doctorate at Sheffield. Stephen thoroughly enjoyed his time living in Saybrook College as a Freshman Counsellor, meeting Paul Newman, Dick Cavett, Burt Shevelove and Wayne Sleep during the Henning’s Thursday cocktails and visiting all the regions of the US and many parts of Canada during his 3 month trip. He has kept some very good friends from his time on the East Coast. Following a subsequent Salters’ Fellowship at Cambridge he has had a very varied career in a wide variety of industries in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Dubai and, latterly in Sweden. Currently he is working with a couple of companies, Iprova SA, a Swiss / UK scale-up that is the World-leading company in data-driven invention and a start-up that his wife, Kerstin, is running, Visual Metaphors at Work AB. Kerstin and Stephen have four children, one working in digital advertising in New York, one a fine artist being looked after by galleries in Dusseldorf and London, one a Senior Colour and Materials Designer for McLaren Automotive and the fourth helping in VMaW. Peter has kept in touch with Didier Kessler, who was at Stanford during his time as a Fellow, currently living in Switzerland. Keen to connect with any other Fellows of his vintage, his Linked-In profile is https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-potter-029a6/.
Last updated: 1st November 2021
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Dr Edwina Moreton (HF 1976-78) 1970s, All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, International Affairs, Journalism, Broadcast, Films & TV
OBE was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for International Studies, MIT, collaborating on projects and publications at both MIT and Harvard on European security and east-west relations. Among many other things, she also learned how to calculate the kill probability of a ballistic missile re-entry vehicle on her (ladies’) slide-rule. Her Harkness Fellowship built on a BA in German and Russian (Bradford), an MSc in Political Science (Strathclyde) and a PhD on Soviet Studies (Glasgow). On her return to the UK she taught at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, before joining The Economist, where she worked for 30 years. As the paper’s Diplomatic Editor, she wrote on a wide range of security issues, from arms control, non-proliferation, trans-Atlantic relations and Asian security, to the UN, international justice and human rights. Boards and councils served on have included the UK Know-How Fund, Chatham House, the IISS and Wilton Park, as well as serving as a trustee and director of VERTIC, an NGO involved in treaty verification. She was made OBE by Queen Elizabeth and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Birmingham. She is currently an Associate Fellow of Chatham House, an advisory council member of the McDonald Centre, Oxford, and serves on the European Advisory Group of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She served as Master of the Worshipful Company of World Traders, City of London, 2018-19.
Last updated: 17th May 2021
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Paul Calthrop (HF 1977-79) 1970s, All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business
: Paul retired as a director of Bain & Company, management consultants, in 2012. He joined them in 1979 from Stanford Graduate School of Business where, thanks to the generosity of the Harkness Foundation, he had completed a Masters in Business Administration. Prior to Stanford, Paul had qualified as a chartered accountant in London. This was the time of the miners’ strike, three day week, pay freeze, and IMF rescue of sterling, which all helped persuade Paul of the importance of strategic thinking as applied to businesses and economies. At Stanford he became aware of the then-emerging field of business strategy. He joined Bain and worked directly with the founders. There were fifty people in the firm when he started; approximately ten thousand when he retired. His work took him from Boston to London to Sydney to Zurich to Melbourne and his clients took him all over the world. Paul, acting in a personal capacity with several Bain partners, created Workplace Giving Australia, which to date has raised more than $250M of new funding for social organisations. He also helped create the Centre for Social Impact, a university research organisation focused on raising community capacity. Paul left Bain for a period to work in private equity, but returned, having proven to himself that he did not enjoy the process of buying and selling businesses. He and his wife, Susan, now live in Queensland, Australia, where Paul would be happy if he never saw the inside of another plane.
Last updated: 22nd March 2021
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David Soskin (HF 1977-79) 1970s, All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, Law & Criminal Justice
was from an early age interested in a business career. Following a First Class Honours degree in Modern History from Magdalen College, Oxford, and a stint at an American commercial bank, he was awarded a Fellowship to study at the Harvard Business School. In 1984, after several years as management consultant, David was appointed Director of Corporate Planning for Redland PLC, a FTSE 100 company. In 1989, he left to start his first entrepreneurial venture, Asquith Court Schools which became the UK’s largest independent nursery school company. In 2000, David led a management buy-in of Cheapflights, the first travel flight price comparison business website and spent eight years as CEO and another six as a board member during which time Cheapflights purchased Momondo and became one of the world’s largest travel search companies. In 2017, Cheapflights/Momondo was acquired by the Bookings Holdings (Priceline). In 2006 David co-founded HOWZAT Partners, a Venture Capital company which invests in early- stage digital businesses globally. It has a portfolio of sixty companies. David took time out of his commercial career to work for the Prime Minister in the Number 10 Policy Unit where he advised John Major on law and order and welfare policies. David retains his interest in politics and supported the Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum. David’s philanthropic activities include his support for City Year, a leading youth and education charity, the Chichester Festival Theatre and the American Civil War Trust where he is a Regimental Color Bearer.
Last updated: 25th May 2018
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Tom Hayhoe (HF 1978-80) 1970s, All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, Health & Social Care, Politics & Public Services
is chairman at West London NHS Trust which, as well as providing mental health services in west London, operates Broadmoor Hospital. Prior this appointment he served as chairman of West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust. He attended Stanford Graduate School of Business as a Harkness Fellow, following a year as President of Cambridge Students Union. On returning from his Harkness Fellowship he worked for McKinsey & Company and then WH Smith before establishing the Brackenbury Group retail consultancy (subsequently The Chambers) and chairing the board of Gamestation, at the time the UK’s second largest video game retailer. During his MBA studies he took a course in health economics and policy which lead to him helping develop the health and social care policies of the Social Democratic Party (for whom he stood for parliament in the 1987 general election), taking a series of non-executive roles in the NHS starting in 1985, and ultimately being appointed to his current role. Tom is a keen offshore sailor and a former vice commodore of the Royal Ocean Racing Club. He is a former trustee and chair of the finance committee of Versus Arthritis.
Last updated: 15th November 2021
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Dr Nigel Croft (HF 1981-82) 1980s, All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths
is a world authority on quality management. After receiving his PhD in metallurgy from Sheffield University, Nigel spent his Harkness Fellowship conducting post-doctoral research at UC Berkeley, marking the beginning of his transformation from a “South Yorkshire lad” to a “Citizen of the world”. After completing his fellowship, he married Naila Diniz (also a PhD metallurgist) and emigrated to Brazil, becoming a Brazilian citizen in 1999. Over the years, Nigel has been actively involved in a range of global quality and sustainability initiatives, and from 2010 to 2018 he chaired the ISO technical subcommittee responsible for the ISO 9001 quality management standard. He has served as non-executive board member of a number of organizations around the world, including the Chartered Quality Institute (London), Social Accountability Accreditation Services (New York), and Fairtrade International’s certification body (FLOCERT) in Bonn. He is a consultant for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and Adjunct Professor of Quality Management at the University of Northern Malaysia. Nigel’s links with the US and the UK continue to be strong – in 2017 he was awarded the American Society for Quality’s Freund-Marquardt medal, “For his passion, dedication and leadership in the application of quality management” and in 2018 an Honorary (“Lifetime Achievement”) Award from the Chartered Quality Institute
Last updated: 18th April 2019
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Alan Rosling (HF 1986-88) 1980s, All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, International Affairs
CBE is an entrepreneur and strategic advisor focused on fast emerging economies, especially India. He co-founded Kiran Energy in Bombay and runs his own consultancy business, Griffin Growth Partners, based in Hong Kong. Alan was a Harkness Fellow in 1986 during which he did an MBA from Harvard Business School. He had previously been a banker with SG Warburg and after the Fellowship returned to the UK to work in a leadership position with Courtaulds Textiles. His subsequent career included the Policy Unit at 10 Downing Street (1991-93), Strategy Director of United Distillers (1993-1997), Chairman, India of the Jardine Matheson Group (1998-2003) and Executive Director of Tata Sons (2004-2009). Alan acts as a Non Executive Director on the Boards of Coats Group Plc, Constellation Alpha Capital Corporation and Vyome Biosciences. He is an advisor to a number of small, growth companies including Peotic, RedGirraffe.com and Insolight.
Last updated: 25th May 2018
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Maddy Phipps-Taylor (HF 2014-15) 2010s, All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, Health & Social Care, Politics & Public Services
applied to the Harkness Fellowship programme while working as a Senior Policy Advisor to PM David Cameron at No 10 Downing Street. She had, at that point, experience as a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and a Civil Servant following an education in Engineering at Oxford. For her Fellowship she was based at UC Berkley in California, researching Accountable Care Organisations (a new healthcare delivery model launched as part of ‘Obamacare’). She travelled the length and breadth of the USA, covering 22 States often with her husband Matt. Her research was published in the Milbank Quarterly, New England Journal of Medicine and Health Affairs. On return to the UK she transitioned into Healthcare Software and now is the Director of Strategy at Allocate Software – the world’s leading healthcare workforce management software provider.
Last updated: 26th May 2018
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