Merryn Rosemary Somerset Webb (born 23 June 1970), is a Senior Columnist at ''

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...

'' writing about wealth, investing and personal finance and is a radio and television commentator on financial matters.

Life and career

She attended

Wycombe Abbey Wycombe Abbey is an independent girls' boarding and day school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls schools in academic results. The school was founded in 1896 by Dame Frances Dove (1847 ...

, a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

in the UK. After gaining a first class

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

in History & Economics as a senior

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

, Webb was awarded a Daiwa scholarship and spent a year studying for a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ar ...

. In 1992, she moved to Japan to continue her Japanese studies and to produce business programmes for

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

, Japan's public

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

station. In 1993, she became an institutional broker for

SBC Warburg S. G. Warburg & Co. was a London-based investment bank. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The firm was acquired by the Swiss Bank Corporation in 1995 and ultimately became a part of UBS. ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, where she stayed for five years. Returning to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1998, to work for

BNP Paribas BNP Paribas is a French international banking group, founded in 2000 from the merger between Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP, "National Bank of Paris") and Paribas, formerly known as the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas. The full name of the grou ...

, she later became a financial writer for ''

The Week ''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's edi ...

''. Two years later, in 2000, she took on the role of launch editor for the financial weekly ''MoneyWeek''. In 2007 she wrote her first book ''Love is Not Enough,'' a personal finance book aimed at women. In 2011 she co-presented ''Superscrimpers'' for Channel 4. In 2013, Webb was awarded an honorary doctorate in Business Administration from

BPP University BPP University is a private university in the United Kingdom. History Name The university takes its name from the founders Alan Brierley, Richard Price and Charles Prior, who in 1975 set up Brierley Price Prior to train accountancy students. ...

for her contribution to financial journalism. Webb is a

non-executive director A non-executive director (abbreviated to non-exec, NED or NXD), independent director or external director is a member of the board of directors of a corporation, such as a company, cooperative or non-government organization, but not a member of the ...

of two investment trusts; the Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon Trust and the Montanaro European Smaller Companies Trust. In 2022 Webb published her second book ''Share Power,'' In 2022 she became a Senior Columnist at

writing about wealth, investing and personal finance.

Awards

Webb has won multiple awards for her journalism, including;
Harold Wincott
Award winner – Personal Finance Journalist of the Year 2008
Harold Wincott
Award winner – Personal Finance Journalist of the Year 2018, for her Saturday column in FT Money.
CFA UK Financial Journalism Award winner
* Ethical and Professional Standards Award 2016
Headline Money Awards winner
– Financial Commentator of the Year 2019

Bibliography

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Somerset Webb, Merryn Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Alumni of SOAS University of London British journalists British magazine editors British columnists Living people 1970 births