Rupert Lascelles Pennant-Rea (born 23 January 1948) is a British businessman, journalist, and former

Deputy Governor of the Bank of England A Deputy Governor of the Bank of England is the holder of one of a small number of senior positions at the Bank of England, reporting directly to the Governor. According to the original charter of 27 July 1694 the Bank's affairs would be supervise ...

. He was Editor and later Chairman of

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

Early life

The son of Peter Athelwold and Pauline Pennant-Rea, he was educated at the Peterhouse Boys' School, an Anglican church boarding school near Marandellas, Rhodesia (now Marondera,

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

), before attending Trinity College, Dublin, and

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

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

Douglas Jay Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay, Baron Jay, PC (23 March 1907 – 6 March 1996) was a British Labour Party politician. Early life Educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, Jay won the Chancellor's English Essay in 1927 and gained a ...

Career

Pennant-Rea joined the Bank of England in 1973 and remained until 1977, when he left to work for ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'' 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 British company

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

following its privatisation in 1996. He was a British American Tobacco director from 1998 to 2007. He was also Chairman of Henderson Group and a non-executive director of Go-Ahead Group, a transport company, First Quantum and Gold Fields, 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 of Royal London, Chairman of PGI, an agriculture company. He was a National Independent director of

Times Newspapers News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp. It is the current publisher of ' ...

. Pennant-Rea recently became Chairman of two start-ups: CloudCycle and Origen Power, both related to greenhouse gases reduction. In the non-profit sector, Pennant-Rea is a trustee of the Marjorie Deane Foundation, and Chairman of Healing Venezuela. He was a trustee of Speakers Trust,Our Trustees
/ref> the UK's leading public-speaking training charity and Chairman of the

Shakespeare Schools Festival Please note: Shakespeare Schools Festival became Shakespeare Schools Foundation in 2016. The Festival is the charity's flagship project. The Shakespeare Schools Festival is the world's largest youth drama festival. Schools who participate perfor ...

. Pennant-Rea has written a series of 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