Keynote SpeakerHoward Davies

Sir Howard Davies is the Chairman of NatWest Group and the former Director of the London School of Economics. He was also the first Chairman of the Financial Services Authority. Until July 2015, he was Chairman of the Phoenix Group and chaired the UK Airports Commission. In February 2015, he was appointed Chairman of The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group, taking up the role from September 2015. RBS Group was then re-named NatWest Group in 2020.

Davies became the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England from 1995-97, and after three years was made the Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry. Earlier in his career, he worked in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Two years as Private Secretary to the British Ambassador in Paris, the Treasury, McKinsey, and Controller of the Audit Commission.

Davies currently chairs the Risk Committee at Prudential plc, whose board he joined in 2010. He is a member of the Regulatory and Compliance Advisory Board of Millennium Management LLC, a New York-based hedge fund. He has been a member of the International Advisory Council of the China Banking Regulatory Commission since 2003 and in 2012, was appointed Chairman of the International Advisory Council of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Previously, Sir Howard was an independent Director of Morgan Stanley Inc. for 11 years, from 2004-15, as well as Director of GKN plc from 1989-95.

Since 2011, Davies has been a Professor of Practice at the French School of Political Science in Paris (Sciences Po). He teaches courses in financial regulation and central banking to master’s students.

Howard Davies has published five books focused on the financial markets and regularly writes for The Financial Times, Times Higher Education, Project Syndicate and Management Today.