Richard Lambert

Lambert was born in north Buckinghamshire and grew up in Manchester, first attending a local grammar school, before, at the age of 13, going to Fettes College, an independent school for boys in the city of Edinburgh in Scotland,[1] followed by Balliol College at the University of Oxford,[2] where he studied History.

He joined the FT in 1966, editing the Lex Column in the paper in the 1970s. He became Financial Editor in 1979. From 1982 to 1983, he was the paper's New York correspondent. He was editor of the Financial Times from 1991 to 2001.[2] From 1997 to 1998, he returned in New York and remained editor, where he set up a US version of the paper to challenge the Wall Street Journal.

From June 2003 to March 2006, he was one of the nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, which sets the interest rate for the British pound.[2]

He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of York in 2007.[4] He has other honorary degrees from City University, the University of Warwick, Brighton University and the University of Exeter.

He was appointed Chancellor of the University of Warwick on 19 March 2008. He formally took up the position on 1 August 2008,[5] and was officially installed on 10 December of the same year. After eight years as Chancellor, Lambert concluded his term at the end of the 2015-16 academic year and will be formally succeeded by Catherine Ashton.[6]

He was knighted in the 2011 New Year Honours for service to business.[7]

The position of the British Museum is that the Parthenon Marbles are owned by the Museum trustees, a group headed by Lambert and comprising mostly wealthy business executives.[8] The British Museum position is widely disputed both internationally and within Britain, where polls indicate that a majority of the population supports the return of the Marbles to Athens.[9][10] Lambert complained[11] of not having received sufficient advanced notice from novelist Ahdaf Soueif, who resigned from the board of trustees of the British Museum, citing its connection with large corporations and its failure to deal with its legacy of looting.[12] Following criticism of the British Museum's continued holding of the Marbles, and the damage caused both by British schoolboys[13] and by controversial whitening attempts.[14][15], Lambert has written to the Guardian asking that he be "trusted" to "take care" of the Parthenon Marbles.[16] The acquisition of the Marbles is widely considered to be illegal and immoral and remains subject to international dispute. The penalties for art theft in Greece include up to 20 years imprisonment.[17]

He married Harriet Murray-Browne in 1973 and has two children.

• CBI biography