Douglas McWilliams appointed Gresham Professor

Douglas McWilliams, chief executive of Cebr, one of the UK’s leading specialist economics consultancies, has been appointed the new Professor of Commerce at Gresham College, London’s oldest higher education institution.

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In this position as Gresham Professor, Douglas McWilliams will deliver an annual series of free public lectures for three years. His theme will be, The Greatest Ever World Economic Event: How the transformation of two thirds of the world’s population from starvation to moderate prosperity will affect us all. Douglas McWilliams writes:

The industrialisation of much of the world’s previously dormant economy is the greatest transformation since the Industrial Revolution. The changes that follow will have an enormous and frequently unwelcome effect on the West, and the phenomenal pace of these changes means that they are happening more quickly than can easily be absorbed. But despite this, we in Europe seem to be sleepwalking into history.

These lectures will seek to understand the momentous nature of these changes, their developing impact on the global economy, and what can be done to influence or at least mitigate these effects in the West. The lectures are to be a wakeup call for us in the West, who will have to work much harder to succeed.

The lectures to be delivered in the first year are: The greatest ever economic change (13th September 2012), Is the growth in the emerging economies additional or are we growing more slowly? (11th October), A new theory of economic growth (15th November), How to make the Western Economies more Competitive (24th January 2013), Will there be a shortage of spending power? (28th February), The winning and losing nations (21st March). A seventh lecture outside of this lecture series will be delivered on Sorting out Transport in London (1st May 2013).

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Professor McWilliams has had a career specialising in economic forecasting and analysis. He currently advises 25 of the FTSE companies, most of the UK’s top retailers, four out of the UK’s top ten legal firms and he is the economic adviser to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

His career has focussed on making economics relevant to commerce, first with the Confederation of British Industry, then as Chief Economist for IBM UK and finally by setting up his own economic consultancy, Cebr, in 1993. He and his family still own 100% of Cebr, now one of the most highly respected sources of business advice and research.

He has received five awards for best forecaster for the UK in 2011. In addition to this, an analysis by CityWire has concluded that Cebr and the OECD have had the best forecasting track record for the UK over the past eight years, a period which, of course, includes the financial crisis.

Professor McWilliams’ interest in international economics has led to his launching quarterly economic insight reports for ICAEW for the Middle East in early 2011, South East Asia in Autumn 2011 and the first quarterly report for China in Beijing in March 2012.

Besides forecasting, his interests have ranged widely – from being the first to apply option pricing theory to the economics of safety to new approaches, to economic impact assessment for transport which have now been incorporated in the official Department for Transport guidance. He is also famed for his communication skills, and is one of the most regularly quoted of the leading economists.

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Gresham College was founded in 1597 when it was set up through the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, perhaps the greatest Elizabethan financier and the founder of the Royal Exchange. The Commerce Chair was created in 1985 in memory of the Mercers’ School and it bears the full title, Mercers’ School Memorial Professor of Commerce. The College continues to flourish, gaining a very strong attendance for its many free public lectures every week.

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Further Information and photographs from James Franklin, Gresham College, Barnard’s Inn Hall, Holborn, London, EC1N 2HH

e-mail , telephone 020 7831 0575, www.gresham.ac.uk