Gillian Tett

Gillian Tett (born 10 July 1967) is a British author and journalist at the Financial Times, where she is a markets and finance columnist and U.S. Managing Editor. She has written about the financial instruments that were part of the cause of the financial crisis that started in the fourth quarter of 2007, such as CDOs, credit default swaps, SIVs, conduits, and SPVs. She became renowned for her early warning that a financial crisis was looming.

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, during which time, at the age of 17, she worked for a Pakistani nonprofit.

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

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. In 2003, she became deputy head of the influential 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. 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. 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.

Fool's Gold

Tett's 2009 book Fool's Gold: How Unrestrained Greed Corrupted a Dream, Shattered Global Markets and Unleashed a Catastrophe was widely reviewed throughout the English-speaking world and won the Spear's Book Award for the financial book of 2009.

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" but who was virtually unknown in 2010.

In 2014, Tett was named Columnist of the Year in the British Press Awards, with judges describing her column as “provocative, revealing, often counter-intuitive” and commending her for covering “a gloriously eclectic range of themes”. In 2012, she received a Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) Award for best feature article, “Madoff spins his story”.

Her other awards include a President’s Medal by the British Academy (2011), being recognised as Journalist of the Year (2009) and Business Journalist of the Year (2008) by the British Press Awards, and as Senior Financial Journalist of the Year (2007) by the Wincott Awards.

In 2010 The Daily Beast asked "Is Gillian Tett The Most Powerful Woman in Newspapers?"

On 30 May 2013 Tett was awarded an honorary doctorate and gave the commencement address at the graduation ceremonies of Baruch College of the City University of New York.

Tett is a single parent of two daughters.

• 2007 – Wincott prize for financial journalism (capital markets coverage)
• 2008 – Business Journalist of the Year (British Press Awards)
• 2009 – Journalist of the Year (British Press Awards)
• 2009 – Financial Book of the Year (for Fool's Gold)
• 2011 – British Academy President's Medal
• 2012 – Business Communicator of the Year (UK Speechwriters' Guild)
• 2012 – Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) Award for best feature article, “Madoff spins his story”
• 2014 – Columnist of the Year (British Press Awards)

• "Press & Broadcasting Awards List of Winners: Senior Financial Journalist". The Wincott Foundation. Retrieved 27 July 2009. 
• "British Press Awards 2008: The full list of winners". Press Gazette. 8 April 2008. Archived from the original on 17 December 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2009. 
• "British Press Awards 2009: The full list of winners". Press Gazette. 1 April 2009. Archived from the original on 15 January 2010. Retrieved 27 July 2009. 
• Foley, Stephen (1 May 2009). "Fool's Gold, By Gillian Tett". The Independent. Retrieved 24 July 2009. 
• "Spear's Book Awards: Winners". Spear's Wealth Management Survey. Retrieved 27 July 2009. 

• The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers, 2015 (ISBN 978-1451644739)
• 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)
• Saving the Sun: How Wall Street Mavericks Shook Up Japan's Financial World and Made Billions, 2004 (ISBN 978-0060554255).