Rupert Lascelles Pennant-Rea (born 23 January 1948) is a British businessman, journalist, and former
Deputy Governor of the Bank of England A Deputy Governor of the Bank of England is the holder of one of a small number of senior positions at the Bank of England, reporting directly to the Governor.
According to the original charter of 27 July 1694 the Bank's affairs would be supervis ...
. He was Editor and later Chairman of
The Economist Group
The Economist Group (legally The Economist Newspaper Limited) is a media company headquartered in London, England. It is best known as publisher of ''The Economist'' newspaper and its sister lifestyle magazine, '' 1843''. The Economist Group spe ...
.
Early life
The son of Peter Athelwold and Pauline Pennant-Rea, he was educated at the
Peterhouse Boys' School
, location =
, province = Mashonaland East
, country = Zimbabwe
, coordinates =
, type = Independent, boarding, high school
, denomination = Anglican
, patron = Saint Peter
, founded = 1955
, founder = Fred Snell
, sister_school = Pet ...
, an Anglican church boarding school near Marandellas,
Rhodesia
Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...
(now
Marondera
Marondera (known as Marandellas until 1982) is a city in Mashonaland East, Zimbabwe, located about 72 km east of Harare.
History
It was first known as Marandella's Kraal, corrupted from Marondera, chief of the ruling Rozvi Empire, VaRozv ...
,
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
), before attending
Trinity College, Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
,
and
Manchester University
, mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity
, established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...
,
where he received his MA degree. He has been married several times,
and has three children and one step-daughter. At one time his wife was Helen Jay, one of the twin daughters of
Labour Party politician
Douglas Jay
Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay, Baron Jay, PC (23 March 1907 – 6 March 1996) was a British Labour Party politician.
Early life
Educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, Jay won the Chancellor's English Essay in 1927 and gained a ...
.
Career
Pennant-Rea joined the
Bank 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 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
in 1973 and remained until 1977, when he left to work for ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
'' magazine.
He was the magazine's editor from 1986 until 1993. Between 1993 and 1995, he again joined the Bank of England as
Deputy Governor of the bank, under the governorship of
Edward George;
he resigned following reports of an extramarital affair with
Mary Ellen Synon, whom he had met at Trinity College, Dublin.
In 1994 he became a member of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the
Group of Thirty
The Group of Thirty, often abbreviated to G30, is an international body of financiers and academics which aims to deepen understanding of economic and financial issues and to examine consequences of decisions made in the public and private sect ...
.
In 1995 he became a director of a Canadian mining company, Sherritt International. In March 1996, he was banned from the USA (along with his wife at the time and under-age children) because of Sherritt's commercial interests in Cuba, under the terms of the USA's Helms-Burton Act.
Pennant-Rea was chairman of British company
The Stationery Office
The Stationery Office (TSO) is a British publishing company created in 1996 when the publishing arm of His Majesty's Stationery Office was privatised. It is the official publisher and the distributor for legislation, command and house papers, s ...
following its privatisation in 1996.
He was a
British American Tobacco
British American Tobacco plc (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, England. As of 2019, it is the large ...
director from 1998 to 2007. He was also Chairman of Henderson Group and a non-executive director of Go-Ahead Group, a transport company, First Quantum and Gold Fields, both mining companies.
In July 2009, Pennant-Rea was appointed non-executive chairman of The Economist Group, having served as a non-executive director since August 2006.. In July 2018, after nine years, he was succeeded by Paul Deighton. He was Chairman of Royal London, Chairman of PGI, an agriculture company. He was a National Independent director of
Times Newspapers
News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp. It is the current publisher of ...
. Pennant-Rea recently became Chairman of two start-ups: CloudCycle and Origen Power, both related to greenhouse gases reduction.
In the non-profit sector, Pennant-Rea is a trustee of the
Marjorie Deane Foundation, and Chairman of Healing Venezuela. He was a trustee of Speakers Trust,
Our Trustees
/ref> the UK's leading public-speaking training charity and Chairman of the Shakespeare Schools Festival
Please note: Shakespeare Schools Festival became Shakespeare Schools Foundation in 2016. The Festival is the charity's flagship project.
The Shakespeare Schools Festival is the world's largest youth drama festival. Schools who participate perform ...
. Pennant-Rea has written a series of books about economics and a novel, ''Gold Foil''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pennant-Rea, Rupert
Alumni of Peterhouse Boys' School
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
Alumni of the University of Manchester
British male journalists
People associated with the Bank of England
The Economist editors
1948 births
Living people
Deputy Governors of the Bank of England