Will Hutton – Keynote speaker
Chair, Big Innovation Centre
Will Hutton is chair of the Big Innovation Centre, a business lead do tank and innovation hub that promotes open innovation. He is also the former executive vice chair of The Work Foundation. Will is an outstanding conference facilitator and keynote speaker on European and global economic issues
Will began his career as a stockbroker and investment analyst, before working in BBC TV and radio as a producer and reporter. From 1983-88 he was the Economics Editor on ‘Newsnight’ and a reporter for ‘Panorama’. From 1981-83 he was the Producer/Director of ‘The Money Programme’ for BBC2 and from 1978-81 he was the producer/editor of Radio 4’s programme ‘The Financial World Tonight’. Before joining The Work Foundation, Will spent four years as editor in chief of the Observer and he continues to write a weekly column for the paper.
The Work Foundation is an independent, not for dividend research based consultancy which is the most influential voice on work, workplace and employment issues in Britain. Will resigned from his position as executive vice Chair in 2011. He is now Chair of the Big Innovation Centre, which exists to make the UK a global open innovation hub, to build a world-class innovation ecosystem, and re-balance and grow the UK economy.
Will has written several best-selling economic books including The World We’re In, The State We’re In, The State to Come, The Stakeholding Society and On The Edge with Anthony Giddens. The State We’re In was the first best seller on political economy for a generation. Will’s book, The Writing on the Wall: China and the West in the 21st Century, was published in the UK in January 2007.
Will is now Principal of Hertford College, Oxford. He previously won the Political Journalist of the Year award and has written a weekly column for more than 15 years, six years at the Guardian and nine at the Observer.