Neil Record – Chairman

Neil Record was elected as Chairman of the IEA Board in March 2015. Neil is also Chairman of Record plc, a listed specialist currency asset manager. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and University College London, from where he holds an MSc in Economics (with distinction). His first job was as an economist at the Bank of England; this was followed by a stint in industry. In 1983, he founded Record, the firm he still chairs. He has lectured on Investment Management at Cambridge University, and is author of the first book on specialist currency management within an investment context: Currency Overlay (John Wiley & Sons, 2003). Neil has been a prime mover in attempting to improve transparency in public sector pensions in the UK, and is author or co-author of four papers on this topic, including Sir Humphrey’s Legacy (2006) published by the IEA. He is Chairman of the Remuneration Committee of Nuffield College, Oxford.

Kevin Bell

Kevin Bell’s background is in public affairs and public relations. He was formerly Regional President at Fleishman-Hillard and managed their activities in the UK, Africa and Middle East. He specialises in advising senior executives of leading blue-chip companies, as well as senior politicians on their communications strategies. One of the industry’s most experienced practitioners, his expertise ranges from media relations, reputation management and M&A, to political counsel, crisis communications and regulatory campaigns. Kevin was an adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Christian Bjørnskov

Christian Bjørnskov is a professor of economics at the Department of Economics at Aarhus University in Aarhus, Denmark, and affiliated researcher at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) in Stockholm. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Göttingen and the University of Heidelberg, and is associated with the Centre for Political Studies in Copenhagen (CEPOS).

Robert Boyd

Robert Boyd is a private investor. He studied Classics at the University of Oxford, has worked in London, Hong Kong and San Francisco, and lives in Alexandria, Virginia. His professional focus has been on strategic corporate growth and management and he has been a board member of public and private corporations, not-for-profit organisations and a community association. He has also been a trustee of various think tanks for more than twenty-five years.

Linda Edwards

Linda is a US citizen and UK citizen who attended law school in Texas before practising mergers and acquisitions law at Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles. She retired from law on moving to London, and has since lived around the world, from Hong Kong to Dubai, involving herself in organisations spreading Classical Liberal ideas. Linda has had a long relationship with the Cato Institute, also supporting the Reason Foundation, the Atlas Network and the Instituto Bruno Leoni.

Robin Edwards

Robin Edwards is a Chartered Accountant and Fund Manager who for fifteen years managed one of Europe’s largest global macro funds. More recently he has become involved as a director and shareholder in several businesses which benefit from his commercial and financial background. Prior to entering the fund management industry Robin practised as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen LLC in London and as a management consultant in Australia. He is a former founder Trustee of Policy Exchange and recently stepped down as chairman of The Queen’s Club where he remains a Trustee.

Sir Michael Hintze

Sir Michael Hintze is an Australian businessman, philanthropist and political patron, based in the United Kingdom. He is the head of CQS Management, a private London hedge fund, launched in 1999. Michael is a fluent Russian speaker. He holds a BSc in Physics and Pure Mathematics and a BEng in Electrical Engineering both from the University of Sydney. He also holds an MSc in Acoustics from the University of New South Wales and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is chairman of the Prince of Wales’s Foundation for the Built Environment and the University of Sydney UK Trust as well as a trustee of the National Gallery and Wandsworth Museum. In 2005 Pope Benedict XVI made Michael a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Gregory and in 2008 he was awarded the title Australian of The Year in the UK. In 2009 Michael and his wife Dorothy received the Prince of Wales Award for Arts Philanthropy. He was knighted in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to the arts.

Professor Patrick Minford

Patrick Minford CBE has been Professor of Economics, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University since October 1997. Between 1967 and 1976 he held economic positions in the Ministry of Finance, Malawi; Courtaulds Limited; H M Treasury; H M Treasury’s Delegation to Washington, DC; Manchester University; and The National Institute for Economic and Social Research. From 1976-1997, Patrick Minford was professor of economics at Liverpool University. He was a member of Monopolies and Mergers Commission 1990-96 and one of the HM Treasury’s Panel of Forecasters (‘Six Wise Men’) 1993-1996. He is author of many books and articles on exchange rates, unemployment, housing and macroeconomics.

Bruno Prior

Bruno Prior is a Director of Summerleaze Ltd, which is involved in the construction materials, property, waste management and energy sectors. For most of his thirty years with the company, Bruno’s main focus has been renewable energy – firstly, the generation of electricity from landfill gas, and then the supply of wood pellets for heating.

Professor Martin Ricketts

Martin Ricketts is Professor of Economic Organisation at the University of Buckingham and is Chairman of the IEA’s Academic Advisory Council. A graduate of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1970) he has a DPhil from the University of York (1980). He was a Research Economist at the Industrial Policy Group (1970-72) and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of York (1974-77). He joined the academic staff of the University of Buckingham in 1977 becoming Dean of the School of Accounting, Business and Economics (1993-97) and then Dean of the School of Humanities (2002-2015). He has published in professional journals on the new institutional economics, the theory of the firm, entrepreneurship, public choice, aspects of public finance and housing policy. He has authored books on Business Enterprise and Ownership Structure, and co-authored books on the Economics of Energy and Government and Industry.

Linda Whetstone

Linda Whetstone is Chairman of the Atlas Network and Network for a Free Society, also a board member of the Institute of Economic Affairs, and Islam and Liberty Network. She was previously on the board of the Mont Pelerin Society and co-organiser of MPS meetings in Nairobi in 2007 and Istanbul in 2011. She has written on development, trade and agricultural topics and recently co-edited Islamic Foundations of a Free Society, published by the IEA. She runs a small business in Sussex, UK with her husband..

Lord Nigel Vinson – Life Vice President and former Chair of the IEA Board of Trustees

Lord Vinson has been a Life Vice President of the IEA since stepping down from the Board of Trustees in 2004. He was appointed to the Board in 1971, and served as IEA Chairman from 1988 until 1995. Lord Vinson has also helped create the IEA Transport Unit and the Vinson Centre for the Study of Liberal Economics at the University of Buckingham.

Professor D.R. Myddelton – Life Vice President and Former Chair of the IEA Board of Trustees

Professor Myddelton has been a Life Vice President since retiring from the Board of Trustees in 2015. David was Chairman of the Board between 2001 and 2015, and has also published the IEA monographs ‘They Meant Well’ and ‘Unshackling Accountants’. David served on the Board from 1994 until 2015.