Dudley Fishburn

John Dudley Fishburn
Born	(1946-06-08) June 8, 1946 New York
Education	Eton and Harvard College
Known for	Leadership at Harvard University
Relatives	Nick Boles MP

John Dudley Fishburn, known as Dudley, was born in New York on June 8, 1946. He has a career as a business man with strong links to the not-for-profit world, particularly universities on both sides of the Atlantic. He is a journalist and Conservative politician, having been Executive Editor of The Economist and Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom (MP) for Kensington. Educated at Eton and Harvard College, from which he graduated in American History and Literature, he has an honorary Doctorate from the Open University. He is married to Victoria, daughter of Sir Jack Boles, and they have four children. Alice, the eldest, works as a journalist on the Financial Times; Honor was an assistant at Downing Street, having been David Cameron’s diary secretary. His brother-in-law, Nick Boles, is a Member of Parliament.

Business career

Fishburn is the chairman of Bluecube Technology Solutions Ltd,^[1] and Mulvaney Capital Management Ltd. He is on the board of Philip Morris International Inc,^[2] the tobacco giant, and of GFI Group Ltd, a City broker. In the recent past, Fishburn has served terms on many Boards including: HSBC Bank plc; Beazley Group plc; Altria Inc; Saatchi and Saatchi plc.

Not-for-profit organisations

Fishburn has a long connection with universities on both sides of the Atlantic. He was chairman of the Trustees of the Open University Foundation. He was the first Englishman to be elected to Harvard University’s governing board, the Board of Overseers.^[3] He is on the Council of Reading University^[4] and a Trustee of the Foundation for Liver Research, which is affiliated to the University of London. His main interest is with the future of research libraries in a digital age. He currently chairs the Visiting Committee of the Cambridge University Library.^[5] For 10 years he chaired the committee for the foremost private library and research system, that of Harvard University’s schools and faculties. He won the Harvard Alumni award for this work. Fishburn serves of the advisory board of the Centre for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dudley Fishburn has worked for heritage organisations. He is chairman-elect of the Heritage of London Trust^[6] and chairs the Friends of the Silchester Archaeological Dig. For 10 years he was on the Executive Committee of the National Trust and was the National Trust’s Treasurer. Fishburn recently retired as Deputy Chairman of the Peabody Housing Trust. He is an advisor to the Bonita Charitable Trust,^[7] a grant-giving body and advises GML Ltd on its charitable donations.

Politics and journalism

He is President of the Newbury Conservative Association, which returns Richard Benyon to Parliament. Fishburn was elected to the House of Commons, as the MP for Kensington, in a by-election in 1988 and re-elected in 1992. In 1997, he stepped down claiming "there were too many MPs" and has since campaigned for a reduction in the size of the House of Commons. In Parliament, he made his name campaigning for leasehold reform which led, after much resistance, to the Leasehold Reform Act. He was made “Radical of the Year” in 1990. Fishburn also brought to the Statute Book a private bill that permitted qualified nurses to write prescriptions, thus breaking the doctors’ monopoly. Fishburn served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sir Timothy Sainsbury in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department of Trade. During his terms in Parliament, he continued as Associate Editor of The Economist producing 13 annual editions of its publication ”The World in...” which is published in 15 languages. He has been published in the New York Times and The Times.

References

• Times Guide to the House of Commons 1992

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Dudley Fishburn