Will Hutton is President of the Academy of Social Sciences, co-chair of the Purposeful Company and an Associate with LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance. He writes a regular column for the Observer and is a well-recognised commentator on economic, financial, and business issues. Previously he was Principal of Hertford College, Oxford, stepping down in 2020.

Will began his career in the City, as a stockbroker and investment analyst where he worked at Phillips and Drew. He then moved to the BBC where he worked extensively as a producer and reporter, before his subsequent career in the Guardian as Economics Editor (1990-96) , Editor of the Observer (1996-2000) and CEO of the Work Foundation (2000-2008).

He has co-authored numerous independent reports to government and written a number of policy papers and books, the best-known of which is probably ‘The State We’re In’. He has founded/co-chaired/directed four thinktanks – The Employment Policy Institute, The Work Foundation, the Big Innovation Centre, and the Purposeful Company and now chairs the advisory board of the Fairness Foundation.  He has also lectured and given public addresses widely and been invited by Government and parliamentary committees to give evidence on a range of economic, financial, and industrial issues.

Will was invited by the EU commission to join a high-level group on the mid-term review of the Lisbon strategy and acted as rapporteur for the report published in November 2004.

He is widowed with three grown up children, is an active sportsman and enjoys a wide range of cultural and creative interests.