Ruth Lea

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Ruth Jane Lea (born 1947) works in British conservative public policy research bodies.

She attended Lymm Grammar School (in Cheshire) and the Universities of York and Bristol. She spent nearly sixteen years in the British Civil Service, working in the Treasury, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Central Statistical Office and the Civil Service College, before moving to the City where she was Chief Economist at Mitsubishi Bank and Chief UK Economist at Lehman Brothers. She was then Economics Editor at ITN – prior to moving to the IoD.

She was Director of the Centre for Policy Studies for four years to November 2007. She is now Director of Global Vision and a Non-Executive Director and Economic Advisor to the Arbuthnot Banking Group. She is perhaps better known for being Head of the Policy Unit at the Institute of Directors, a post which she held between 1995 and 2003, and in which capacity she became a well-known television interviewee on matters relating to business.

She was a vociferous commentator of the standard of secondary school examinations, and would appear every year on television news programmes when ever-improving GCSE and A Level results were announced to criticise what she felt was a drop in standards and a reflection of grade inflation (but which others interpreted as an improved success rate for schools and students; higher educational standards).