Sir Howard Davies

Howard Davies was appointed Chairman of NatWest Group plc on 1 September 2015. Previously, Howard was Chairman of the Phoenix Group between October 2012 and August 2015. He chaired the UK Airports Commission from 2012-15 and was the Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science from 2003 until May 2011. Prior to that appointment Howard chaired the UK Financial Services Authority, then the single regulator for the UK financial services sector, from 1997 to 2003.

Howard was the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England from 1995-97, after three years as the Director General of the Confederation of British Industry. Earlier in his career he worked in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including two years as Private Secretary to the British Ambassador in Paris, the Treasury, McKinsey and Co, and as Controller of the Audit Commission.

Howard has been a Professor of Practice at the French School of Political Science in Paris (Sciences Po) since 2011. He teaches courses in financial regulation, and central banking to masters students.

He is a member of the Regulatory & Compliance Advisory Council of Millennium Management LLC, a New York-based hedge fund. He has been a member of the International Advisory Council of the China Banking Regulatory Commission since 2003 and in 2012, was appointed Chairman of the International Advisory Council of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Previously Howard chaired the Risk Committee at Prudential plc from 2010 to 2020. He was an independent Director of Morgan Stanley Inc. for 11 years, from 2004 to 2015 and earlier in his career was a Non-Executive Director of GKN plc from 1989-95.

He was a Trustee of the Tate Gallery from 2002-2010 and Chair from 2009-10. He was a director of the Royal National Theatre from 2011 to 2015, when he left to chair the London Library. He is also the patron of Working Families, a charity which promotes family-friendly working practices.

Howard has published five books focused on the financial markets and regularly writes for The Financial Times, Times Higher Education, Prospect, The Literary Review, Project Syndicate and Management Today.

He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, Merton College, Oxford and Stanford Graduate School of Business.