John Kay is one of Britain’s leading economists. His work focuses on the relationships between business, finance and the economy. In 2015, he put forward the thesis that the financial industry has been preoccupied with itself for 40 years, mostly trading with itself and contributing nothing to the functioning of the real economy.
Kay was the first Dean of the Said Business School at Oxford and has held chairs at the London Business School, the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Born and educated in Edinburgh, he was a member of the Scottish Government’s Council of Economic Advisers. Following the Brexit referendum result in June 2016, he was appointed as a member of the Standing Council for Scotland and Europe, which was convened by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.