John Dudley Fishburn, known as Dudley, was born in New York on June 8, 1946. He has a career as a business man with strong links to the not-for-profit world, particularly universities on both sides of the Atlantic. He is a journalist and Conservative politician, having been Executive Editor of The Economist

The Economist

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...

and Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

 (MP) for Kensington. Educated at Eton

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

 and Harvard College

Harvard College

Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

, from which he graduated in American History and Literature, he has an honorary Doctorate from the Open University

Open University

The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...

. He is married to Victoria, daughter of Sir Jack Boles, and they have four children. Alice, the eldest, works as a journalist on the Financial Times

Financial Times

The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....

; Honor is an assistant at Downing Street

Downing Street

Downing Street in London, England has for over two hundred years housed the official residences of two of the most senior British cabinet ministers: the First Lord of the Treasury, an office now synonymous with that of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Second Lord of the Treasury, an...

, having been David Cameron

David Cameron

David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....

’s diary secretary for two years. His brother-in-law, Nick Boles, is a Member of Parliament.

Business career

Fishburn is the chairman of the Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust plc, of Bluecube Technology Solutions Ltd and Mulvaney Capital Management Ltd. He is on the board of Philip Morris International Inc, the tobacco giant, and of GFI Group Ltd, a City broker. In the recent past, Fishburn has served terms on many Boards including: HSBC Bank plc; Beazley Group plc; Altria Inc; Saatchi and Saatchi plc.

Not-for-profit organisations

Fishburn has a long connection with universities on both sides of the Atlantic. He was chairman of the Trustees of the Open University Foundation. He was the elected to Harvard University’s governing board, the Board of Overseers. He is on the Council of Reading University and a Trustee of the Foundation for Liver research, which is affiliated to the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

. His main interest is with the future of research libraries in a digital age. He currently chairs the Visiting Committee of the Cambridge University Library

Cambridge University Library

The Cambridge University Library is the centrally-administered library of Cambridge University in England. It comprises five separate libraries:* the University Library main building * the Medical Library...

. For 10 years he chaired the committee for the foremost private library and research system , that of Harvard University’s schools and faculties. He won the Harvard Alumni award for this work. Fishburn serves of the advisory board of the Centre for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

.

Dudley Fishburn has worked for heritage organisations. He is chairman-elect of the Heritage of London Trust and chairs the Friends of the Silchester Archaeological Dig. For 10 years he was on the Executive Committee of the National Trust

National Trust

National Trust most commonly refers to an organization dedicated to preserving the cultural or environmental treasures of a particular geographic region. They generally operate as private non-profit organizations, although some receive considerable support from their national government...

 and was the National Trust’s Treasurer. Fishburn recently retired as Deputy Chairman of the Peabody Housing Trust. He is an advisor to the Bonita Charitable Trust, a grant-giving body.

Politics and journalism

He is President of the Newbury Conservative Association, which returns Richard Benyon to Parliament. Fishburn was elected to the House of Commons, as the MP for Kensington, in a by-election in 1988 and re-elected in 1992. In 1997, he stepped down claiming "there were too many MPs" and has since campaigned for a reduction in the size of the House of Commons. In Parliament, he made his name campaigning for leasehold reform which led, after much resistance, to the Leasehold Reform Act. He was made “Radical of the Year” in 1990. Fishburn also brought to the Statute Book a private bill that permitted qualified nurses to write prescriptions, thus breaking the doctors’ monopoly. Fishburn served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sir Timothy Sainsbury in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department of Trade. During his terms in Parliament, he continued as Associate Editor of The Economist producing 13 annual editions of its publication ”The World in...” which is published in 15 languages. He has been published in the New York Times and The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

.

External links