Gillian Tett

Awarding-winning Journalist | Chairman of the US Editorial Board and America Editor-at-Large, Financial Times

ESG & CSR

Economics

World Economy

Behavioral Economics

Moderators

Politics

Social Commentary

Gillian Tett has an unparalleled track record at predicting important trends that impact the world. She called the credit crunch crisis three years ahead of anyone else. Her journalistic work, to chart and explain the ensuing global financial crisis is well documented and she has received awards for her work.

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Gillian covers a wide range of subjects, speaking frequently on the intersection of politics, populism, and financial markets. Her unique perspective, as a behavioural scientist, gives her different insights on financial markets and corporate life in general.

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Gillian Tett is Chairman of the US Editorial Board and America Editor-at-Large at the Financial Times. In her previous role at the FT, she oversaw global coverage of the financial markets. Her twice-weekly column earned her recognition as Columnist of the Year at the 2014 Press Awards. In 2004, Gillian began building a team at the Financial Times to cover capital markets, correctly anticipating the need to watch an industry growing uncommonly fast. By 2007, a year ahead of the curve, she began issuing her news breaking warnings of a looming financial crisis.

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Gillian's best-selling book, Anthro-Vision: A New Way to See in Business and Life, offers a look at how businesses can revolutionize their understanding of human behavior by studying consumers and organizations through an anthropological lens.

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She is also the author of The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers and the New York Times bestseller Fool's Gold, the gripping tale of how a team of Wall Street bankers led by J.P. Morgan's CEO Jamie Dimon created the world of 'shadow banking,' and then lost control of their creation. Fool's Gold is a vital contribution to our understanding of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. She also wrote Saving the Sun, about Japan's financial collapse in the 1990s. She was Japan bureau chief for the FT during their 'lost decade'. Gillian's next book will be about why every CEO (and investor) needs their 'inner anthropologist' to make informed decisions.

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In recognition of her work, Gillian has won several awards, including the 2021 Presidents' Medal from the American Anthropological Association, the UK Speechwriters’ Guild Business Communicator of the Year 2012, the Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards 2009, British Business Journalist of the Year in 2008, and the Wincott prize in 2007. Gillian also received The British Academy President’s Medal 2011, which rewards service to the cause of the humanities and social sciences, specifically for her insightful journalism contributing to public understanding. More recently, she was recognized as Columnist of the Year at the 2014 Press Awards.

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Gillian has a PhD in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University, based on research conducted in the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s. She speaks French and Russian and has studied Japanese and Tajik.

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Credentials

Chairman of the US Editorial Board and America Editor-at-Large, Financial Times
Past Managing Editor, United States, and Columnist, Financial Times
2021 Presidents' Medal from the American Anthropological Association
Foreign Commentator of the Year 2017, Editorial Intelligence
Columnist of the Year, 2014 Press Awards
Author, The Silo Effect, Fool's Gold and Saving the Sun
Winner, 2014 Marsh Award, awarded by the Royal Anthropological Society in recognition of outstanding use of anthropology or anthropological ideas to contribute to a better understanding of the world’s problems
Awarded the UK Speechwriters’ Guild Business Communicator of the Year 2012
2011 President's Medal by The British Academy, UK's national academy for the humanities and social sciences
Winner, Journalist of the Year 2009, British Press Awards
Winner, British Business Journalist of the Year 2008, British Press Awards
Winner, Wincott Prize, 2007
She was awarded honorary degrees from Baruch University (2013), Lancaster University (2015), Exeter University (2016), Miami University (2016) and Carnegie Mellon (2017). In December 2017, she gave the commencement speech at London University

Topics

The Good, Bad and the Ugly of the ESG = An Anthropologist and Author’s View

Silo-busting;the secret to success in the tech world

Why do some companies succeed brilliantly, but others fail? Why do some executives seem to triumph in business, but others do not? If you ask many tech experts that question, they might point to skills in computer engineering. But as Gillian Tett will explain, citing the examples from well known firms, that this only explains part of the tale. The other key ingredient which technology experts need to ponder is social engineering — or the importance of cultural and social patterns. And one of the most important of these cultural challenges is the problem created by silos — and the need to overcome this.

Silo-busting: a new perspective on why diversity really matters

Diversity has many faces and is an essential part of any healthy organization. She gives prime examples of where this lack of diversity led to catastrophic mistakes and also where it led to improved thinking and decision making. Within this area, Gillian also can talk about he boundary between finance and philanthropy and finance and technology.

Why Every CEO Need an Anthropologist

Gillian outlines the nature of 'tribal' behaviour and how organisations work as distinct societal groups. She gives examples where certain organizations developed 'tunnel vision; and ways to survive this trap by expanding their thinking across boundaries by embracing diversity, holistic thinking and to design system wide learning.

Fintech and Financial Markets — the road ahead ?

Gillian warns on the trend between increasing reliance on complex financial instruments, the risks of relying on excessively expert experts and a world where fast returns are made on capital. We shouldn''t forget the lessons of a decade ago with Fintech strategies that few truly understood and which led to disastrous outcomes for many.

The Disrupted World

Today’s world is economically and politically unstable, anti-expert, post-truth, uncertain of its financial and physical borders. Gillan will outline why it is so crucial to take a joined up view about what lies ahead for the political economy.

Dazed and Confused: Making Sense of an Uncertain Economy

Gillian gives her views on the current trials and tribulations of the economy — she takes a global view and adds her individual focus on what lies ahead.

Videos