Gillian Tett

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Gillian Tett is an award-winning British author, journalist and anthropologist known for her contribution to the journalism and banking industries. She is the author of four books, most notably Fool’s Gold (2009) which won her the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Award for her work in uncovering the financial crisis at the heart of the global banking system. She is currently the US Managing Editor for the Financial Times and a fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Tett was born in 1968 in London, England. She earned her degree in social anthropology from Cambridge University in 1990 and then earned her PhD in Social Anthropology from Cambridge in 1995. Following graduation, she joined the Financial Times as a reporter, covering several news stories related to the banking and finance industry.

In her book, Fool’s Gold, Tett looks closely at the global financial meltdown of 2007-2008. She claims that the cause of the crisis was not greedy banking practices or irresponsible government policy, but fundamentally flawed ideas about risk and capital. Tett argued that conventional economic models had led financial institutions to dangerously underestimate the amount of risk built into the loans and investments they were taking on, and concluded that ‘fool’s gold” (or excessive risk-taking) had become endemic in the financial sector. The book went onto to become a major bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic and won several Awards including the 2013 Society of Business Economists Book Prize for Outstanding Contribution to the literature.

In her subsequent book, The Silo Effect (2015), Tett investigates the individual and institutional failure from the 2008 financial crisis. Drawing on her anthropological expertise and experience in the corporate world, she argues that individuals and organisations suffer from ‘silo’ thinking which leads them to pay too much attention to their own narrow interests whilst ignoring the broader context of the world around them. The book has since been translated into several languages and is used by business schools as a source of inspiration for teaching on interdisciplinary approaches.

Tett’s award-winning journalism and books have shaped the debate on global finance and written a new chapter in the narrative of the 21st Century financial system. She has been a fierce advocate of economic and banking reform, consistently calling for greater scrutiny and cross-departmental cooperation in financial regulation to better serve the public interest. Her research and advocacy has provided an important voice in the creation of new models for financial organisations, showing how better understanding of risk, behaviour and historical context can lead to better decision-making by individuals and organisations.

Gillian Tett’s contribution to the banking and finance industry via her reporting, research and advocacy has been unprecedented. Her eloquent writing skills, combined with her understanding of history and anthropology, has made her a major public figure in the international community. Her work has opened up a rich new understanding of both financial markets and the behaviour of bankers, policymakers, and consumers alike.