I am the Director of the London School of Economics, and have been since September 2003. Before then, for 6 years, I was Chairman of the Financial Services Authority, the UK's financial regulator. Earlier in my career I was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Director General of the Confederation of British Industry and Controller of the Audit Commission for local authorities and the National Health Service.

I am a member of the Governing Body of the Royal Academy of Music, an Honorary Fellow of Merton College Oxford, and the Patron of Working Families, a charity which promotes family friendly working policies to government and to employers. I am also an Independent Director of Morgan Stanley Inc. in New York, and a non-executive Director of Paternoster Plc in London. I have a diary column in Management Today, and review books frequently for The Times, The Times Higher Education Supplement and elsewhere. I also write for the Financial Times.

Outside work, my leisure interests are, apart from visiting art galleries, theatre, football and playing cricket.

My own artistic tastes are eclectic. I have a particular enthusiasm for Wyndham Lewis and other 20th century British artists like Paul Nash and William Roberts. But I also enjoy abstract and minimalist art, for reasons I would find hard to describe.