Gillian Tett

Tett was educated at the North London Collegiate School, an independent school for girls in Edgware, in the London Borough of Harrow in northwest London,[9] during which time, at the age of 17, she worked for a Pakistani nonprofit.[8]

After leaving school, she went up to Clare College, Cambridge, where she earned a PhD in Social Anthropology[10] based on field research in Tajikistan in the former Soviet Union.[11] She expressed frustration with an academic anthropology that in her view has been committing "intellectual suicide"[8] and decided instead to pursue a career in journalism.[12]

In 1993, Tett joined the Financial Times as a correspondent from the former Soviet Union and Europe. In 1997, she was posted to Tokyo, where she later became bureau chief.[11] In 2003, she became deputy head of the influential[13][14][15][16] Lex column. Tett was then U.S. managing editor at the FT, before working as an assistant editor and columnist before returning to the U.S. managing editor position.[11][17] She is also the chairwoman of the board of trustees for the Knight–Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism with Columbia University.

During the years 2005–2007, Tett applied her skills in ethnographic research to J.P. Morgan and discovered that the insular culture was leading to the creation of financial instruments that had little basis and that could cause severe economic disruption. In 2006, she predicted the financial crisis.[8][18] Her 2009 book Fool's Gold recounts the lead-up to the economic crisis and the eventual collapse. She also played a significant role in the 2010 documentary Inside Job about the financial crisis of 2008.[8]

In 2010 Tett interviewed author Sebastian Mallaby on C-SPAN about his book More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite providing a very clear image of hedge funds. Mallaby introduced "James Simons, founder of the Renaissance Technologies hedge fund and arguably the most successful investor of all time"[19] but who was virtually unknown in 2010.[20]

Tett is a single parent to two daughters.[21]

• 2007, Wincott prize for financial journalism (capital markets coverage)[26]
• 2008, Business Journalist of the Year, British Press Awards[27]
• 2009, Journalist of the Year, British Press Awards[28]
• 2009, Financial Book of the Year (for Fool's Gold)[29][30]
• 2011, President's Medal of the British Academy.[31]
• 2012, Business Communicator of the Year, UK Speechwriters' Guild
• 2012, Society of American Business Editors and Writers Award for best feature article, for Madoff spins his story
• 2013, Honorary doctorate, Baruch College of the City University of New York[32]
• 2014, Columnist of the Year, British Press Awards
• 2015, Honorary degree, Lancaster University[33]
• 2016, Honorary degree, University of Exeter.[34]
• 2016, Honorary degree, University of Miami[35][36]
• 2017, Honorary fellowship, Goldsmiths, University of London.[37]
• 2017, Tepper School of Business Award for Professional Excellence, Carnegie Mellon University[38]
• 2017, Foreign Commentator of the Year, Editorial Intelligence
• 2019, Best in Business Honorees, Newsletter, Moral Money

• Saving the Sun: How Wall Street Mavericks Shook Up Japan's Financial World and Made Billions, 2004 (ISBN 978-0060554255).
• Fool's Gold: How Unrestrained Greed Corrupted a Dream, Shattered Global Markets and Unleashed a Catastrophe ISBN 978-1-4087-0164-5 (in some markets called Fool's Gold: How the Bold Dreams of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe, 2010 ISBN 978-1-4165-9857-2)
• The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers, 2015 (ISBN 978-1451644739)

• Gillian Tett on Twitter
• Media related to Gillian Tett at Wikimedia Commons
• Gillian Tett at IMDb
• Appearances on C-SPAN