"Why the West Keeps Winning"

Will Hutton is an English writer, weekly columnist and former editor-in-chief for The Observer. He is currently Principal of Hertford College, Oxford and Chair of the Big Innovation Centre, an initiative from The Work Foundation (formerly the Industrial Society), having been Chief Executive of The Work Foundation from 2000 to 2008.

He is an economist and leading public intellectual whose career began in the City, but who is best known for his work in journalism. He was editor-in-chief at The Observer from 1996-2000 (where he continues to write a column), when he joined the Work Foundation. His review ‘Fair Pay in the Public Sector’ was published in 2010, and he has also conducted a number of other independent reviews:  on Britain’s education and training compared to EU countries for the then DfES (2005), for the BBC’s charter renewal submission (2004) and he led a team assessing the prospects for  the creative industries – “Staying Ahead” - for the DCMS (2007)

He is currently chairing the Ownership Commission, established by the outgoing Labour government.

His many books include the best-selling The State We’re In (1995), The Writing on the Wall: China and the West in the Twenty-First Century (2008), and, most recently, Them and Us: Changing Britain – Why We Need a Fair Society (2010).

He is a governor of the London School of Economics and the Ditchley Foundation, and has received honorary degrees from many universities including Bristol, East Anglia, Kingston, and Glasgow Caledonian.