Paul Myners
Encyclopedia
Paul Myners, Baron Myners, CBE
(born 1 April 1948) was the Financial Services Secretary (sometimes referred to as City Minister) in HM Treasury
, the UK's finance ministry, during the Labour Government of Gordon Brown
. He held the position from October 2008 until May 2010, and was made a life peer
in consequence of his appointment, as he was not an elected Member of Parliament
. He also served on the Prime Minister's National Economic Council
.
Myners has worked in the financial sector since 1974. He has also held a number of third sector posts, including Chairman of the Trustees of Tate and Chairman of the Low Pay Commission, all of which he relinquished on his ministerial appointment. Immediately prior to his ministerial appointment he was Chairman of the Guardian Media Group
, publisher of The Guardian
and The Observer
newspapers, and chairman of Land Securities Group, the largest quoted property company in Europe at that time. He is a former Chairman of Marks & Spencer
and Deputy Chairman of PowerGen.
family, and grew up in Truro
. His adopted father was a self-employed butcher and his mother a hairdresser. He attended Truro School
, an independent Methodist college, on a scholarship. He graduated from the University of London
, with a First Class Honours degree in Education and a Certificate in Education (teaching qualification), and became a secondary school teacher in Wandsworth with the Inner London Education Authority
(1971–72). He left teaching after two years and joined The Daily Telegraph
as a financial journalist moving into the financial sector in 1974 as a junior portfolio manager at N M Rothschild & Sons
.
Although his political views are not well known, The Independent
reported that "a Labour Cabinet insider" said of him that "for a City grandee he has a genuine instinct for social justice." Myners has never donated to the Labour Party
, but in 2007 he gave £12,700 to Gordon Brown's leadership campaign.
He is married to Alison Macleod, who is Chair of the Institute of Contemporary Art and a former Chair of the Contemporary Art Society and Trustee of The Royal Academy Trust
.
He has a residence near Falmouth, Cornwall.
as chief executive, becoming chairman in 1987 and remaining there until 2001. During this period the funds managed by Gartmore rose from £1.2bn in 1985 to £75bn in 2001, and Myners earned an estimated £30m. With his retirement from Gartmore in 2001 he chose to focus on a wider range of interests, acting as non-executive director and chairman in a number of companies and third sector institutions.
He was a director at NatWest until it was taken over by Royal Bank of Scotland
in the spring of 2000. In 2000 he became Chairman of the Guardian Media Group
, publisher of The Guardian
and The Observer
newspapers.
In August 2010, Myners joined the board of RIT Capital Partners PLC, a substantial investment fund chaired and sponsored by Lord (Jacob) Rothschild
, and later that year he became a Trustee of ARK, the charity supported by London’s major hedge fund managers.
(director). He is a former Chairman of The Association of Investment Trust Companies and has also been a member of the Financial Reporting Council
(FRC) and The Panel on Takeovers and Mergers
. He has compiled reports on institutional investment http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/documents/financial_services/securities_and_investments/fin_sec_mynfinal.cfm, equity capital raising and governance for HM Treasury
and the Department of Trade and Industry [two reports before 1997 and three after]. Between August 2007 and October 2008 he was Chairman of the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA), the body tasked with implementing the UK Government's plans for a new national pensions savings scheme for private sector workers on low and moderate incomes. He resigned this position on his appointment as a minister.
He also served on the Commission on English Prisons, established by the Howard League for Penal Reform
, and the Green Fiscal Commission
, and was a member of the Commission on Vulnerable Employment sponsored by the TUC, and a trustee of the Smith Institute
, an education and public policy think tank. He is a past Chairman of the Trustees of the Tate and Chairman of the Low Pay Commission, a past trustee at the National Gallery and the Royal Academy
Trust, trustee of the Charity Aid Foundation and served on the Advisory Council of St. Paul’s Cathedral Institute. Myners resigned from all current posts to avoid conflict of interest with his government post. He remains a trustee of Glynebourne and is a member of the Advisory Council of the University of Oxford's Internal Development Department.
on 21 October 2008 in order to become Financial Services Secretary, gazetted as "Baron Myners, of Truro in the County of Cornwall". He was appointed Financial Services Secretary (a position sometimes referred to as City Minister) in HM Treasury
, in Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government in October 2008. Shortly after his appointment Myners underwent a "baptism of fire", working on the £500bn 2008 United Kingdom bank rescue package
.
In February 2009 Lord Myners was at the centre of controversy concerning the amount of pension paid to Sir Fred Goodwin, the former chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland
. Myners said that he did not approve the details of Sir Fred's pension settlement when it was arranged the previous autumn as part of the government's bailout of RBS
, pointing out that this was a matter for the Board of RBS. However, former RBS chairman Sir Tom McKillop disputed Myners' account in later evidence to the Treasury Select Committee, insisting that "every element" of Goodwin's financial compensation on leaving the bank had been fully discussed with Myners. The Treasury Committee concluded in their report that “…it would have been far better if Lord Myners had given a stronger, clearer direction of Government requirements for a bank in receipt of public funds and had assured himself by demanding to be kept informed of the detailed negotiations that were taking place…. It would, we believe, have been open to Lord Myners to insist that Sir Fred should have been dismissed…. The RBS Board had shown itself to be incompetent in the management of the bank, steering it towards catastrophe… We suspect that Lord Myners’ City background, and naiveté as to the public perception of these matters, may have led him to place too much trust in an RBS Board that he himself described to us as “distinguished”.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer gave Myners responsibility for a number of major agencies sponsored by the Treasury including The Debt Management Office, National Savings & Investment, UK Financial Investments and the Asset Protection Agency. Myners also handled the routine ministerial interface between the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority.
, as evidenced by the last Government in the Fiscal Responsibility Act
. There is nothing progressive about a Government which consistently spends more than it can raise in taxation, and certainly nothing progressive that endows generations to come with the liabilities incurred by the current generation without evidence of productive investment to match."
in 2001. He also has an Honorary Doctorate in Law from the University of Exeter
and is a Visiting Fellow at Nuffield College Oxford.
In July 2010 he was elected chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Corporate Governance and in November 2010 he was admitted as an Honorary Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 1 April 1948) was the Financial Services Secretary (sometimes referred to as City Minister) in HM Treasury
HM Treasury
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...
, the UK's finance ministry, during the Labour Government of Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
. He held the position from October 2008 until May 2010, and was made a life peer
Life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...
in consequence of his appointment, as he was not an elected Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
. He also served on the Prime Minister's National Economic Council
National Economic Council (United Kingdom)
The National Economic Council is a Cabinet committee in the UK Government created in 2008, replacing the Economic Development Committee. - External links :* *...
.
Myners has worked in the financial sector since 1974. He has also held a number of third sector posts, including Chairman of the Trustees of Tate and Chairman of the Low Pay Commission, all of which he relinquished on his ministerial appointment. Immediately prior to his ministerial appointment he was Chairman of the Guardian Media Group
Guardian Media Group
Guardian Media Group plc is a company of the United Kingdom owning various mass media operations including The Guardian and The Observer. The Group is owned by the Scott Trust. It was founded as the Manchester Guardian Ltd in 1907 when C. P. Scott bought the Manchester Guardian from the estate of...
, publisher of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
newspapers, and chairman of Land Securities Group, the largest quoted property company in Europe at that time. He is a former Chairman of Marks & Spencer
Marks & Spencer
Marks and Spencer plc is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products...
and Deputy Chairman of PowerGen.
Background and personal life
Paul Myners was adopted at an early age by a CornishCornish people
The Cornish are a people associated with Cornwall, a county and Duchy in the south-west of the United Kingdom that is seen in some respects as distinct from England, having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales, as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe...
family, and grew up in Truro
Truro
Truro is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The city is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population recorded in the 2001 census of 17,431. Truro urban statistical area, which includes parts of surrounding parishes, has a 2001 census...
. His adopted father was a self-employed butcher and his mother a hairdresser. He attended Truro School
Truro School
Truro School is a mixed independent school located in the city of Truro, Cornwall, UK. The current Headmaster is Paul Smith. Deputy Headteachers are Nick Fisher and Anita Firth . Phil Brewer is Assistant Head and Head of Sixth Form...
, an independent Methodist college, on a scholarship. He graduated from 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...
, with a First Class Honours degree in Education and a Certificate in Education (teaching qualification), and became a secondary school teacher in Wandsworth with the Inner London Education Authority
Inner London Education Authority
The Inner London Education Authority was the education authority for the 12 inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990.-History:...
(1971–72). He left teaching after two years and joined The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
as a financial journalist moving into the financial sector in 1974 as a junior portfolio manager at N M Rothschild & Sons
N M Rothschild & Sons
N M Rothschild & Sons is a private investment banking company, belonging to the Rothschild family...
.
Although his political views are not well known, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
reported that "a Labour Cabinet insider" said of him that "for a City grandee he has a genuine instinct for social justice." Myners has never donated to the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, but in 2007 he gave £12,700 to Gordon Brown's leadership campaign.
He is married to Alison Macleod, who is Chair of the Institute of Contemporary Art and a former Chair of the Contemporary Art Society and Trustee of The Royal Academy Trust
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
.
He has a residence near Falmouth, Cornwall.
City of London career
In 1985, he moved to pension fund manager Gartmore GroupGartmore Group
Gartmore Group Limited is a British-based investment management business. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.- History :The Company was founded in 1969 by British & Commonwealth and acquired by Banque Indosuez in 1989. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1993...
as chief executive, becoming chairman in 1987 and remaining there until 2001. During this period the funds managed by Gartmore rose from £1.2bn in 1985 to £75bn in 2001, and Myners earned an estimated £30m. With his retirement from Gartmore in 2001 he chose to focus on a wider range of interests, acting as non-executive director and chairman in a number of companies and third sector institutions.
He was a director at NatWest until it was taken over by Royal Bank of Scotland
Royal Bank of Scotland
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group is a British banking and insurance holding company in which the UK Government holds an 84% stake. This stake is held and managed through UK Financial Investments Limited, whose voting rights are limited to 75% in order for the bank to retain its listing on the...
in the spring of 2000. In 2000 he became Chairman of the Guardian Media Group
Guardian Media Group
Guardian Media Group plc is a company of the United Kingdom owning various mass media operations including The Guardian and The Observer. The Group is owned by the Scott Trust. It was founded as the Manchester Guardian Ltd in 1907 when C. P. Scott bought the Manchester Guardian from the estate of...
, publisher of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
newspapers.
In August 2010, Myners joined the board of RIT Capital Partners PLC, a substantial investment fund chaired and sponsored by Lord (Jacob) Rothschild
Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild
Nathaniel Charles Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, Bt, OM, GBE, FBA is a British investment banker and a member of the prominent Rothschild family of bankers...
, and later that year he became a Trustee of ARK, the charity supported by London’s major hedge fund managers.
Public appointments
Prior to his October 2008 ministerial appointment he was a member of the Court of the Bank of EnglandBank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...
(director). He is a former Chairman of The Association of Investment Trust Companies and has also been a member of the Financial Reporting Council
Financial Reporting Council
The Financial Reporting Council is the UK's independent regulator responsible for promoting high quality corporate governance and reporting to foster investment.-Structure:...
(FRC) and The Panel on Takeovers and Mergers
Panel on Takeovers and Mergers
The Panel on Takeovers and Mergers is a regulatory body located in London, England. It was set up in 1968 and is charged with the administration of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers...
. He has compiled reports on institutional investment http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/documents/financial_services/securities_and_investments/fin_sec_mynfinal.cfm, equity capital raising and governance for HM Treasury
HM Treasury
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...
and the Department of Trade and Industry [two reports before 1997 and three after]. Between August 2007 and October 2008 he was Chairman of the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA), the body tasked with implementing the UK Government's plans for a new national pensions savings scheme for private sector workers on low and moderate incomes. He resigned this position on his appointment as a minister.
He also served on the Commission on English Prisons, established by the Howard League for Penal Reform
Howard League for Penal Reform
The Howard League for Penal Reform is a London-based registered charity in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest penal reform organisation in the world, named after John Howard. Founded in 1866 as the Howard Association, a merger with the Penal Reform League in 1921 created the Howard League for...
, and the Green Fiscal Commission
Green Fiscal Commission
The Green Fiscal Commission is a British body set up to examine the best way of implementing green taxes in the United Kingdom. GFC includes members from business, academia and the three main British political parties. GFC is chaired by Robert Napier, chairman of the Met Office and former chief...
, and was a member of the Commission on Vulnerable Employment sponsored by the TUC, and a trustee of the Smith Institute
Smith Institute
The Smith Institute is a left-wing think tank in the United Kingdom. It was founded in memory of the late John Smith QC MP, former Leader of the Labour Party....
, an education and public policy think tank. He is a past Chairman of the Trustees of the Tate and Chairman of the Low Pay Commission, a past trustee at the National Gallery and the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
Trust, trustee of the Charity Aid Foundation and served on the Advisory Council of St. Paul’s Cathedral Institute. Myners resigned from all current posts to avoid conflict of interest with his government post. He remains a trustee of Glynebourne and is a member of the Advisory Council of the University of Oxford's Internal Development Department.
City Minister
He was created a Life PeerLife peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...
on 21 October 2008 in order to become Financial Services Secretary, gazetted as "Baron Myners, of Truro in the County of Cornwall". He was appointed Financial Services Secretary (a position sometimes referred to as City Minister) in HM Treasury
HM Treasury
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...
, in Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government in October 2008. Shortly after his appointment Myners underwent a "baptism of fire", working on the £500bn 2008 United Kingdom bank rescue package
2008 United Kingdom bank rescue package
A bank rescue package totalling some £500 billion was announced by the British government on 8 October 2008, as a response to the ongoing global financial crisis. After two unsteady weeks at the end of September, the first week of October had seen major falls in the stock market and severe worries...
.
In February 2009 Lord Myners was at the centre of controversy concerning the amount of pension paid to Sir Fred Goodwin, the former chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland
Royal Bank of Scotland
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group is a British banking and insurance holding company in which the UK Government holds an 84% stake. This stake is held and managed through UK Financial Investments Limited, whose voting rights are limited to 75% in order for the bank to retain its listing on the...
. Myners said that he did not approve the details of Sir Fred's pension settlement when it was arranged the previous autumn as part of the government's bailout of RBS
2008 United Kingdom bank rescue package
A bank rescue package totalling some £500 billion was announced by the British government on 8 October 2008, as a response to the ongoing global financial crisis. After two unsteady weeks at the end of September, the first week of October had seen major falls in the stock market and severe worries...
, pointing out that this was a matter for the Board of RBS. However, former RBS chairman Sir Tom McKillop disputed Myners' account in later evidence to the Treasury Select Committee, insisting that "every element" of Goodwin's financial compensation on leaving the bank had been fully discussed with Myners. The Treasury Committee concluded in their report that “…it would have been far better if Lord Myners had given a stronger, clearer direction of Government requirements for a bank in receipt of public funds and had assured himself by demanding to be kept informed of the detailed negotiations that were taking place…. It would, we believe, have been open to Lord Myners to insist that Sir Fred should have been dismissed…. The RBS Board had shown itself to be incompetent in the management of the bank, steering it towards catastrophe… We suspect that Lord Myners’ City background, and naiveté as to the public perception of these matters, may have led him to place too much trust in an RBS Board that he himself described to us as “distinguished”.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer gave Myners responsibility for a number of major agencies sponsored by the Treasury including The Debt Management Office, National Savings & Investment, UK Financial Investments and the Asset Protection Agency. Myners also handled the routine ministerial interface between the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority.
Opposition
On 8 June 2010, Myners made headlines with a speech he made in the Lords. He said, "We clearly need a policy of fiscal caution. It was right to support the economy during the global recession but there now needs to be fiscal adjustmentFiscal adjustment
A fiscal adjustment is a reduction in the government primary budget deficit, and it can result from a reduction in government expenditures, an increase in tax revenues, or both simultaneously....
, as evidenced by the last Government in the Fiscal Responsibility Act
Fiscal Responsibility Act 2010
The Fiscal Responsibility Act 2010 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received Royal Assent on 10 February 2010. The Act was repealed by section 10 of the Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act 2011 on March 23 2011....
. There is nothing progressive about a Government which consistently spends more than it can raise in taxation, and certainly nothing progressive that endows generations to come with the liabilities incurred by the current generation without evidence of productive investment to match."
Other positions
In March 2009 the Sunday Times revealed that Lord Myners had been chairman of Aspen Insurance Holdings, a Bermuda-based insurance company, for five years, avoiding more than £100 million a year in tax. The Times went on to report that Myners was also chairman of Liberty Ermitage, an offshore fund based in Jersey. Besides this, Gartmore, the fund management company that Lord Myners chaired for 15 years, also ran a Jersey-based offshore business.Awards
Myners was awarded a CBEOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 2001. He also has an Honorary Doctorate in Law from the University of Exeter
University of Exeter
The University of Exeter is a public university in South West England. It belongs to the 1994 Group, an association of 19 of the United Kingdom's smaller research-intensive universities....
and is a Visiting Fellow at Nuffield College Oxford.
In July 2010 he was elected chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Corporate Governance and in November 2010 he was admitted as an Honorary Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.