Rupert Lascelles Pennant-Rea (born 23 January 1948) is a British businessman, journalist, and former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. He was editor of

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

newspaper and later Chairman of

The Economist Group The Economist Newspaper Limited (commonly The Economist Group) is a British media company headquartered in London, England. It is best known as publisher of ''The Economist'' newspaper and its sister lifestyle magazine, ''1843''. The Economist G ...

Early life

The son of Peter Athelwold and Pauline Pennant-Rea, he was educated at the Peterhouse Boys' School, an Anglican church boarding school in Zimbabwe before attending

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

, and

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

, where he received his MA degree. He is married and has three children and one step-daughter. At one time his wife was Helen Jay, one of the twin daughters of Labour Party politicians Peggy Jay and

Douglas Jay Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay, Baron Jay, PC (23 March 1907 – 6 March 1996) was a British Labour Party politician. Early life and education Educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, Jay won the Chancellor's English Essay in 192 ...

Career

Pennant-Rea joined the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

in 1973 and remained until 1977, when he left to work for ''

'' magazine. He was the magazine's editor from 1986 until 1993. Between 1993 and 1995, he again joined the Bank of England as Deputy Governor of the bank, under the governorship of Edward George; he resigned following reports of an extramarital affair with Mary Ellen Synon, whom he had met at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1994 he became a member of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the

Group of Thirty The Group of Thirty, often abbreviated to G30, is an international body of financiers and academics which aims to deepen understanding of economic and financial issues and to examine consequences of decisions made in the public and private sec ...

. In 1995 he became a director of a Canadian mining company, Sherritt International. In March 1996, he was banned from the USA (along with his wife at the time and under-age children) because of Sherritt's commercial interests in Cuba, under the terms of the USA's Helms-Burton Act. Pennant-Rea was chairman of

The Stationery Office The Stationery Office (TSO) is a British publishing company created in 1996 when the publishing arm of Her Majesty's Stationery Office was privatised. It is the official publisher and the distributor for legislation, command and house papers, s ...

following its privatisation in 1996. He was a

British American Tobacco British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products including electronic cigarettes. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, E ...

director from 1998 to 2007. He was also Chairman of Henderson Group, and a non-executive director of several companies such as

Go-Ahead Group Go-Ahead Group Limited is a Multinational corporation, multi-national transport group based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. While the majority of its operations are within Great Britain, it also operates services in Ireland, Australia, Singapo ...

, a transport company, First Quantum Minerals and

Gold Fields Gold Fields Limited (formerly The Gold Fields of South Africa) is one of the world's largest gold mining firms. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company is listed on both the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the New York St ...

, both mining companies. In July 2009, Pennant-Rea was appointed non-executive chairman of The Economist Group, having served as a non-executive director since August 2006. In July 2018, after nine years, he was succeeded by Paul Deighton. He was chairman at Royal London, and Chairman of PG

an agriculture company. He was a National Independent director of Times Newspapers#Times Newspapers Ltd, Times Newspapers. Since retiring from Royal London in 2019, Pennant-Rea has been an angel investors and board member of start-ups related to greenhouse gases reduction such as Cloud-Cycl

. In the non-profit sector, Pennant-Rea is a trustee of the Marjorie Deane, Marjorie Deane Foundation. He was a trustee of Speakers Trust, the UK's leading public-speaking training charity and Chairman of the Shakespeare Schools Festival. Pennant-Rea has written several books about economics and a novel, ''Gold Foil''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pennant-Rea, Rupert Alumni of Peterhouse Boys' School Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Alumni of the University of Manchester British male journalists People associated with the Bank of England The Economist editors 1948 births Living people Deputy governors of the Bank of England Jay–Garnett family