THE ECONOMIC INSIDER
Many people are jack of all trades but very few go on to become master of them as well.
James Crabtree, it seems, is one of them.
He’s tried his hand – and done tremendously well – at a host of things. A Fulbright Scholarship at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government set the foundation for his role as at the New Democrat Network, a Washington think tank, where he dealt with issues related to the fallout of globalisation, before returning to home ground – the UK – to join the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit as a policy advisor, working in particular on issues realting to “open data” and new technologies at the heart of British government.
This longstanding interest in the intersection of media and politics included an early role as the head of the iSociety research program at the British think tank The Work Foundation, where he spent three years examining the social impact of the internet. He went on to co-found mySociety.org, the leading creator of civic engagement and political transparency websites, and remains a trustee of it even today.
Journalism called, though, and James answered. He left the government and joined Prospect – a monthly magazine that celebrates ideas in politics, economics and current affairs – as deputy editor, having also written for the Economist, Wired and others.
He went on to join the Financial Times, the world’s leading business newspaper as Comment Editor, where he worked initially the FT’s widely respected comment page, before heading off to India to become the paper’s Mumbai bureau chief.
He’s now truly in the thick of things, leading global coverage of business and corporate life in India. That involves breakfasts with visiting top-rung venture capitalists, test-driving Aston Martins pre-launch, and writing everything from snappy updates to in-depth essays on the Indian economy. His experience and astute analytical skills make him a much-respected commentator and speaker at exclusive forums around the world.
