Allister Heath winner of 2011 Free Enterprise Award


SUGGESTED

Government and Institutions

Prof Philip Booth comments on Moody's placing the UK on negative outlook

City AM Editor crowned this year's winner

The Institute of Economic Affairs has chosen Allister Heath, the editor of City A.M., as the winner of the 2011 IEA Free Enterprise Award.

The award is given to the person judged to have made the greatest contribution to the market economy, and Heath joins an illustrious list of winners. First awarded in 1975, previous recipients include Margaret Thatcher, Richard Branson and Nigel Lawson.

A panel of judges – comprising journalists, businessmen, MPs and IEA trustees – praised Heath for the lucidity and relevance of his daily editorials, his stewardship of the paper and his eloquent and continuing advocacy of free-market thinking.

Philip Booth, Editorial Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs said:

“The judges saw Allister as a clear winner of this year’s prize, despite strong competition from both home and abroad. His stewardship of City A.M. has been outstanding. And his daily leaders have become a must-read in Westminster, the City and beyond. They stand as a beacon of clarity and sound economic thinking, challenging the Keynesian orthodoxy of much of the media.”

Allister Heath is Editor of City A.M., the daily business newspaper distributed in and around London and digitally. Under his editorship, the paper, which has now grown to an audited print circulation of 100,000 copies per day, has become an influential voice in London’s business community. Heath’s trenchant daily column in the paper covers economics, finance, politics, geopolitics, business strategy and other subjects and has gathered an increasingly large following.

Prior to taking over at City A.M. in March 2008, he was Editor of The Business magazine, a publication he joined as economics correspondent and leader-writer when it was a Sunday newspaper in 2002. During those years, he was also a regular contributor to The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday. While at The Business, he also served a two year term as a Wincott visiting professor of financial journalism at the University of Buckingham.

The award will be presented at the IEA’s State of the Economy conference on February 23rd.  The conference will be addressed by, amongst others, Thomas Mayer, Chief Economist at Deutsche Bank,  Roger Bootle, Managing Director of Capital Economics and  Steve Hanke, Professor of Applied Economics at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, once described as one of the 25 most influential people in the world.

Notes to editors

If you have any questions about the award please contact Stephanie Lis, Director of Communications: 020 7799 8909, [email protected]

The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems. The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.



SIGN UP FOR IEA EMAILS