Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Lionel Barber

Former Editor
Financial Times

Video is for members only, please do not distribute

Moderator:
R. Glenn Hubbard
Dean Emeritus and Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics
Columbia University

Lionel is best known for his tenure as editor of the Financial Times from 2005 to 2020. During his editorship, he transformed the Financial Times into a leading global news organization, emphasizing digital integration and expanding its readership to over a million paying subscribers, with more than 75% being digital.

Lionel began his journalism career in 1978 at The Scotsman, later joining The Sunday Times as a business correspondent. In 1985, he moved to the Financial Times, serving in various roles including Washington correspondent, Brussels bureau chief, news editor, European editor, and U.S. managing editor.

Throughout his career, Lionel has interviewed numerous global leaders, such as U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

An accomplished author, his memoir, The Powerful and the Damned: Private Diaries in Turbulent Times, was published in 2020. We welcome Lionel today as a part of the Club’s Author Series to discuss his latest work, Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japan’s Masayoshi Son.