Jim is Head of Global Economic Research for Goldman Sachs, and has been in this position since September 2001. In this role, Jim oversees all the firm’s economic research and the output of its team all around the world.

Jim received his Ph.D. in 1982 from the University of Surrey after graduating in Economics from Sheffield University in 1978.  After a brief spell with Bank of America and International Treasury Management, a division of Marine Midland Bank, in 1988 Jim joined Swiss Bank Corporation(SBC).  In 1991, he became Head of Research, globally for SBC. Jim joined Goldman Sachs in October 1995 as a Partner, Co-Head of Global Economics and Chief Currency Economist.

Jim is the creator of the acronym BRICs and together with his colleagues he has published much research about BRICs which has become synonymous with the emergence of Brazil, Russia India and China as the growth opportunities of the future.

Jim is a member of the board of the Royal Economic Society in the UK, of the European think tank Bruegel, and Itinera, a Belgium think tank.  He is a member of the UK-India Round Table and the UK India Business Council.

Jim is one of the founding trustees as well as currently Chairman of the London based charity SHINE.  Jim is also Chairman of Goldman Sachs European Charity Committee and a trustee of the Every Child Trust, Piggy Bank Kids, and sits on the Manchester Independent Economic Review Commission. He also served as a non-executive director of Manchester United before it returned to private ownership in 2005.