There are nine members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee
(MPC). In addition to the Governor and two Deputy Governors of the Bank, the
Chief Economist of the Bank and the Executive Director for Markets there are
four external members appointed directly by the Chancellor. The MPC is split
into hawks, who tend to push for rate rises, and more cautious doves.
Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England
With an impressive academic record – studying at King's College, Cambridge and
as a Kennedy scholar at Harvard, and subsequently teaching at Cambridge,
Birmingham, Harvard, MIT and the LSE – Mr King joined the Bank of England in
1990 as a non-executive director. The following year he went on to become
Chief Economist and Executive Director, before assuming the role of Deputy
Governor in 1998. He commenced his five year term as Governor in 2003.
Mr King, a Fellow of the British Academy, holds honorary degrees from a number
of universities. He is a Patron of Worcestershire County Cricket Club, a
Trustee of the National Gallery and sits on the Advisory Council of the
London Symphony Orchestra.
HAWK OR DOVE? Instinctively hawkish, and increasingly prepared to cast
dissenting votes.
Rachel Lomax, Deputy Governor, Monetary Policy
Rachel Lomax, a graduate of Girton College, Cambridge and the LSE, began her
career at the Treasury in 1968. She has held a variety of positions in
Whitehall: Principal Private Secretary to the Chancellor, Nigel Lawson, in
the 1980s, Deputy Chief Economic Adviser in the early 1990s, and
subsequently senior roles at the Cabinet Office, the Department for
Transport, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Welsh Office. Her
career has also taken her to Washington, where she was a Vice President and
a Chief of Staff to the President of the World Bank from 1995 to 1996.
Ms Lomax, who was appointed Deputy Governor with specific responsibility for
monetary policy issues in 2003, is on the boards of the Royal National
Theatre and De Montfort university.
HAWK OR DOVE? After hawkish beginnings her recent form marks her as a dove,
second only to Danny Blanchflower.
Sir John Gieve, Deputy Governor, Financial Stability
Sir John Gieve was appointed Deputy Governor in January 2006. He oversees the
Bank's financial stability work, and is on the board of the FSA. He joined
the Bank after four years as Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, at a
time when the Department faced a central challenge – to build up
anti-terrorism measures in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 and later
July 7, 2005 attacks. Before that he had spent 20 years at the Treasury,
working closely with three Chancellors - as Private Secretary to Nigel
Lawson and John Major, and Chief Secretary to Norman Lamont.
A North London resident and Arsenal fan, Sir John is also a school governor
and trustee of a local sports charity.
HAWK OR DOVE? Relatively hawkish.
Charles Bean, Executive Director and Chief Economist
After studying at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and MIT, Charles Bean worked at
the Treasury in the 70s and 80s. In 1982 he joined the LSE as a lecturer; he
became Professor of Economics in 1990 and Head of Department nine years
later. Mr Bean has written widely – in academic journals and the media more
generally – and has held a number of public policy roles, advising the
Commons Treasury Committee, the House of Lords inquiry into the European
Central Bank and the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European
Parliament.
Mr Bean was appointed to the Bank in 2000; he is responsible for the Monetary
Analysis and Statistics Divisions of the Bank.
HAWK OR DOVE? Marginally dovish.
Paul Tucker, Executive Director, Markets
Paul Tucker, who studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, began his career in
banking in the 80s, working as a banking supervisor, a corporate financier
at a merchant bank, and on projects in Hong Kong after the stock market
crash in 1987 to reform the securities markets and regulatory system in Hong
Kong. He worked at the Bank as Principal Private Secretary to Governor
Leigh-Pemberton until 1993 and subsequently held a variety of positions. In
1999 he became Deputy Director with specific responsibilty for financial
security. From 1997 until 2002, when he was appointed Executive Director, he
sat on the Secretariat of the MPC and prepared the published minutes of
meetings.
He is the Chair of London's Money Markets Liaison Group.
HAWK OR DOVE? Until January Paul Tucker was the most hawkish member of the
MPC; he remains a hawk, but less decisively.
Kate Barker, MPC member
Appointed an external member of the MPC in 2001, had previously been Chief
Economic Adviser at the CBI. A graduate of St Hilda's College, Oxford, Ms
Barker has also held positions at Ford and the National Institute of
Economic and Social Research. She was a member of Chancellor Kenneth
Clarke's Panel of Independent Economic Advisers from 1996 to 1997, and was a
non-executive director of the Yorkshire Building Society from 1999 to 2001.
HAWK OR DOVE? The least likely to cast a dissenting vote. Her voting record
suggests dovish tendencies but she is best described as neutral - a
swing voter.
Professor Tim Besley, MPC member
Prof Besley, who studied Economics at Oxford and was a Fellow of All Souls
College, began his career at Princeton in 1989 and moved to the LSE in 1995,
where he remains part-time. A Fellow of the British Academy and the
Econometric Society, he won the Yrjö Jahnsson award in economics in 2005 and
was appointed to the MPC in 2006.
HAWK OR DOVE? One of the two leading hawks.
Professor David Blanchflower, MPC member
Prof Blanchflower, known as Danny, holds degrees from the universities of
Leicester, Wales and London (Queen Mary and Westfield), in addition to an
honorary masters from Dartmouth College, where he is the Bruce V. Rauner
Professor of Economics. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of
Economic Research and a Research Fellow at the universities of Munich and
Bonn. A labour economist, he has published widely and he won Princeton
University's Richard A Lester Prize for his book, The Wage Curve. He
was appointed to the MPC in 2006.
HAWK OR DOVE? The arch dove.
Dr Andrew Sentance, MPC member
Appointed to the MPC by Gordon Brown in 2006, Dr Sentance is also part-time
Professor at the University of Warwick, and a member of the Commission for
Integrated Transport, the Government's transport policy advisory panel. He
studied at Eltham College, Cambridge and holds a PhD from the LSE. He has
worked at British Airways, the London Business School and the CBI, and was a
founder member of the Treasury's Panel of Independent Forecasters,
established in 1992 to provide advice to the Chancellor.
HAWK OR DOVE? With Tim Besley, a leading hawk.
