Carolyn Fairbairn

Carolyn Fairbairn has been Director General of the CBI since November 2015. Prior to this, she held a range of senior leadership roles in business, government and the media.

She spent much of her early career at McKinsey, where she became a partner leading its media practice. She also worked extensively in the media industry, first as BBC Director of Strategy, where she led the BBC’s digital strategy and launched TV service Freeview, and also at ITV, where she was a member of the Executive Board for 4 years.

She has also held several FTSE non-executive director positions: at Lloyds Banking Group, The Vitec Group and Capita plc. She was also a director of the Competition and Markets Authority, the UK Statistics Authority and, from 2008-11, the Financial Services Authority.

From 1995-1997, Ms Fairbairn was a member of the Number 10 Policy Unit. She began her career as an economist at the World Bank and worked as a journalist for The Economist magazine.

She holds an BA in Economics from Cambridge University, an MA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from INSEAD.