In memoriam Lord Paul Myners
Paul Myners was Chairman of Edelman UK and Chancellor of the University of Exeter until his death in January. Paul grew up in Cornwall and began his career as a teacher in London before a brief spell as a columnist with the Daily Telegraph. But it was in business and in the city of London in particular that he excelled. He made his name at Rothschild, before 16 years as CEO and later Chairman of the Gartmore Group, where he turned the fledgling pension fund into a global giant. Paul held directorships at NatWest, Coutts, Lloyd’s of London and the Bank of New York, and was Chairman of the Guardian Media Group and Marks & Spencer, where he famously helped see off a hostile takeover from Philip Green. Paul also served on the Court of the Bank of England, and the board of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC. But he will perhaps be best remembered for his tenure as Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury during the 2008/9 financial crash. He is widely acknowledged to have been one of the key architects of the UKs response to the crisis. At the time of his death Paul was a General Partner of Cevian, the largest ‘activist fund’ in Europe, Managing Partner of Autonomous Research LLP, a member of the Court of the London School of Economics, a Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford and an Executive Fellow of the London Business School. Commenting on his death, Edelman EMEA chief executive and President Ed Williams said: “Paul made a huge contribution to the development and success of the firm over his tenure. There are few people who bring such depth of knowledge and experience from the top of both the private and public sector, and Paul always did so with a strong social and moral conscience. He also brought fun and laughter and was able to move effortlessly from PLCs to pop culture.” Paul Myners was 73.