Rupert Harrison

Rupert Harrison CBE (born 1 November 1978) is a British Economist and a Portfolio Manager at BlackRock. He was from 2006 to 2015 the Chief of Staff to George Osborne, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the UK Treasury. In 2014 Harrison was said to be one of the most powerful people in the UK and to be the main reason why Osborne could be a "part time" Chancellor.

Born in São Paulo, Harrison was educated at Eton College (where he was head boy) and studied at Magdalen College, Oxford University, where he was awarded an Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. From 2002, he worked at the Institute for Fiscal Studies before joining Osborne's team in 2006 and moving with him to the Treasury in 2010.

In his first year at Oxford he was in a band called Psychid with three other students. One of his tutors at Oxford was Stewart Wood, who went on to become an adviser to both Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband, and the two are apparently still friends.

In June 2013 it was reported by Guido Fawkes in The Sun that Harrison delivered his son himself after the midwife was delayed, apparently earning him the nickname "safe hands Harrison".

He obtained a PhD degree in Economics in 2007 from University College London entitled, Innovation and technology adoption and his academic research was published in the American Economic Review, the Economic Journal and the Review of Economics and Statistics amongst others.

In March 2014, he was the subject of the BBC Radio 4 Profile programme.

In August 2015 Harrison joined the investment firm BlackRock where he is a Portfolio Manager and Chief Macro Strategist for Multi-Asset Strategies.

He has written opinion pieces for the Financial Times and appears regularly as a commentator on TV and radio.

He is the Chair of The Fore, a charity dedicated to funding small charities and social enterprises.

Harrison was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2015 Dissolution Honours Lists on 27 August 2015.

Views on Brexit
Harrison believes Brexit damages the UK economy.  He wrote, "Q2 growth of 0.3% is not the end of the world, and I'm less gloomy than many on the outlook. But the rest of Europe is booming and we're not".

References

External links

Rupert Harrison on Financial Times

Category:1978 births
Category:Living people
Category:People educated at Eton College
Category:Alumni of University College London
Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
Category:British special advisers
Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire