Sir Vince Cable

The Rt Hon Sir Vince Cable was Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade (2010-2015). He was Member of Parliament for Twickenham 1997-2015; deputy leader of the Lib Dems 2007-2010 and shadow chancellor 2003-2010. He is currently a professor in Practice at the LSE (London School of Economics, attached to the Institute of Global Affairs). He is also working on a collaborative project on Russia (with Calvert 22) and on ‘industrial strategy’ in emerging economies. He is also a visiting Professor at Nottingham University, Economics Department, St Mary University in Twickenham and is both governor of Richmond Adult and Community College and a life time fellow of the City Lit.

In 1990 he joined Shell International taking up the post of Chief Economist in 1995. He has also been head of the economics programme at Chatham House and is a former fellow of Nuffield College Oxford and the LSE. From 1983 to 1990, Sir Cable worked as special advisor on Economic Affairs for the Commonwealth Secretary General, Sir Sonny Ramphal. He was then appointed Deputy Director of the Overseas Development Institute, which included a period working for the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, John Smith, as a special advisor. After lecturing at Glasgow University in economics, he worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a first secretary in the Diplomatic Service (1974-76). Sir Cable served as a Labour councillor in Glasgow (1971- 74), before joining the Social Democrat party. From 1966 to 1968 he was Treasury Finance Officer for the Kenya Government.

He read Natural Sciences and Economics at Cambridge University, where he was President of the Union, followed by a PhD at Glasgow University.