Jonathan Adair Turner, Baron Turner of Ecchinswell (born 5 October 1955, Ipswich) is a British businessman, academic and chairman of both the Financial Services Authority and the Committee on Climate Change. He was formerly chairman of the Pensions Commission. He has described himself in a BBC HARDtalk interview with Stephen Sackur as a 'technocrat'.
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He grew up in Crawley and East Kilbride (both new towns - his father Geoffrey was a University of Liverpool-educated town planner), and initially attended Hutchesons' Grammar School in Glasgow, then moved to Argyll. He attended Glenalmond College and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he took a double first in History and Economics and became President of the Cambridge Union. He was also Chairman of the University's Conservative Association. He joined the SDP in 1981.
He taught economics part time after university. His career with BP started in 1979 and he worked for Chase Manhattan Bank from 1979-82. He became a director of McKinsey & Co in 1994 after joining in 1982.[1] Turner was Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) from 1995-9. In this role he became one of the leading proponents of British membership of the euro - a stance he later said was mistaken.[2] From 2000-06 he was Vice-Chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe.[3]
He lectures part time at the London School of Economics.
In 2002, he chaired a UK government enquiry into pensions. In 2007, he succeeded Frances Cairncross as Chairman of the Economic and Social Research Council and Baroness Jay as Chair of the Overseas Development Institute's Council.
In 2008 he was appointed Chairman of the UK Government's nascent Committee on Climate Change. He will step down from this position in Spring 2012. [4]
On 29 May 2008, it was announced that he would take over as Chairman of the Financial Services Authority.[5] He took up this post in September 2008 for a five year term to succeed Callum McCarthy.
Turner defended the actions of the regulator on the BBC's Andrew Marr show on 15 February 2009. His comments were that other regulatory bodies throughout the world, which had a variety of different structures and which are perceived either as heavy touch or light touch also failed to predict the economic collapse. According to Turner, in line with the other regulators, the FSA had failed intellectually by focusing too much on processes and procedures rather than looking at the bigger economic picture. In response as to why Sir James Crosby had been appointed deputy chairman when his bank HBOS had been highlighted by the FSA as using risky lending practises, Lord Turner said that they had files on almost every financial institution indicating a degree of risk.[6]
He did not apologise for the actions of the FSA, which had overseen the near total collapse of several major banks, and accepted that his organisation had not foreseen the likely consequences for Lloyds Bank of its merger with the ailing HBOS arranged in September 2008. Despite raging controversy over bonuses for employees of the struggling Lloyds Bank, he sought to justify upcoming bonuses averaging 15 per cent for his approximate 2,500 staff, arguing "If you're saying we should now cut the bonuses (of FSA employees), you're saying you should cut their pay by 15%".[7]
In August 2009 in an interview for Prospect magazine he supported the idea of new global taxes on financial transactions (the “Tobin tax”), warning that a “swollen” financial sector paying excessive salaries has grown too big for society.[8]
On 7 September 2005 he was created a life peer as Baron Turner of Ecchinswell. Ecchinswell is in the County of Hampshire, and his award in recognition of his public service to the nation (he has a cottage in Ecchinswell).
In 1985 he married Orna Ní Chionna, whom he met at McKinsey. She comes from Ireland, and was born c. 1956. She is now Chair of the council of the Soil Association and a non-executive director of Northern Foods. They have two daughters (born November 1988 and September 1991), and live in Kensington, London, UK.
Lord Turner's unstinting criticism of the regulatory system shouldn't have surprised too many. After all, he was never going to blame the bankers, having been one of them himself until not too long ago. - quoted from Private Eye, No. 1231- 6–19 March 2009.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Howard Davies |
Director of the Confederation of British Industry 1995–1999 |
Succeeded by Digby Jones |