Robert Skidelsky

Lord Skidelsky is a Crossbench Life Peer, an economist and author, and Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. He is on the Advisory Board of the John Smith Memorial Trust

He was born in Harbin, China, in 1939, educated at Brighton College, and later at Jesus College, Oxford (BA Modern History 1961).

Between 1965 and 1968, Lord Skidelsky was Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. He then worked as Associate Professor of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University (Washington DC) from 1970 until 1976. Lord Skidelsky then went on to Head the Department of History, Philosophy and European Studies at the Polytechnic of North London (1967-78). From 1978 - 1990, he taught International Studies at Warwick University.

Lord Skidelsky was a founding member of the Social Democratic Party. He is Founder and Chair of the Centre for Global Studies. He is the former Chairman of the Social Market Foundation (1991-2001), and former Conservative Party spokesman for Treasury Affairs in the House of Lords. Since 2001 he has been on the Advisory Board of the Moscow School of Political Studies.

Books of his include Politicians and the Slump (1967), English Progressive Schools (1969), Oswald Mosley (1975), and The World After Communism (1995). He is also the author of a major biography in three volumes on John Maynard Keynes.