Rain Newton-Smith
Boards are cutting sustainability commitments to protect near-term margins. OBR analysis shows this will cost the economy five times more than acting early. UK-EU trade friction, US tariff pressure, and the China decoupling question are converging simultaneously – none with a clean policy resolution.
When fiscal pressure and sustainability commitments appear to be pulling in opposite directions, Rain Newton-Smith, Chief Executive of the Confederation of British Industry, makes the economic case – backed by OBR analysis – that they are not.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Rain Newton-Smith
- She makes the affirmative economic case that net-zero and growth are reinforcing – not competing – priorities, with CBI and OBR data showing the cost of failing to decarbonise is five times the cost of acting early. This reframes a question most boards are still treating as a trade-off.
- Her analysis of UK investment conditions is not retrospective commentary: as head of the CBI she is actively co-designing the UK Industrial Strategy with government, giving organisations access to intelligence that is live and consequential.
- Her China and emerging markets expertise – built as lead specialist at Oxford Economics – gives her a credible basis for the counter-consensus argument that full decoupling from China is economically untenable and inconsistent with any serious free-trade commitment.
- She bridges central bank monetary discipline (nine years at the Bank of England, IMF secondment) with the strategic language of the boardroom – a combination that is rare among economists who speak on UK macroeconomic and geopolitical risk.
- As Policy Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Department of Economics and Non-Executive Director of F&C Investment Trust, she operates simultaneously inside academic economic policy debate and at the institutional investor level.
Biography highlights
- Chief Executive of the Confederation of British Industry – the UK’s principal business advocacy body, representing over 170,000 firms
- Former Chief Economist at the CBI (2014–2023); led economic analysis, policy teams, and HM Treasury engagement
- Nine years at the Bank of England, including global forecasting for the Monetary Policy Committee; seconded to the IMF as adviser to the UK Executive Director (2004–2006)
- Former Head of Emerging Markets at Oxford Economics; lead expert on China and Asia
- Former Managing Director, Strategy and Policy, Sustainability and ESG at Barclays
- Policy Fellow, Department of Economics, University of Oxford; Council Member, Royal Economic Society; Member, LSE Centre for Economic Performance Policy Committee
- Non-Executive Director, F&C Investment Trust
- WEF Young Global Leader (2012); WEF Global Future Council on Monetary and Fiscal Policy (2020)
- Management Today 35 Women Under 35 (2010)
- PPE, University of Oxford; MSc Economics, London School of Economics
Biography
The question of whether UK business can afford the green transition is being asked backwards. Rain Newton-Smith, Chief Executive of the Confederation of British Industry, has built the evidence to reframe it. OBR projections show the cost of failing to decarbonise is five times the cost of acting early – making this a capital allocation question, not an environmental one.
Her analytical foundation spans nine years at the Bank of England preparing forecasts for the Monetary Policy Committee, followed by a secondment to the IMF as adviser to the UK Executive Director. She then led the emerging markets practice at Oxford Economics as its lead expert on China – work that now informs her publicly stated position that full decoupling from China is economically untenable and inconsistent with a commitment to free trade.
Before becoming CBI Chief Executive in 2023, she served as CBI Chief Economist for nine years, leading its economic analysis and policy teams and its engagement with HM Treasury, and as Managing Director of Strategy, Policy, Sustainability and ESG at Barclays. The combination – central bank economist, institutional strategist, and now the UK’s leading business advocate – places her above the policy debate rather than within it.
She is a Policy Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Department of Economics, a Council Member of the Royal Economic Society, and a Non-Executive Director of F&C Investment Trust. The World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader in 2012 and invited her to join its Global Future Council on Monetary and Fiscal Policy in 2020.
Key speaking topics
- UK economic outlook and investment conditions
- Global trade, protectionism, and the China question
- Net-zero growth: the economic case for the green transition
- UK industrial strategy and business-government partnership
- Geopolitical risk and its consequences for capital allocation
- Emerging market dynamics and Asia
- ESG strategy and the business case for sustainability
Ideal for
- Boards and C-suite leadership evaluating UK investment and growth strategy
- CFOs, CSOs, and heads of strategy in financial services, energy, and manufacturing
- Government affairs and regulatory teams navigating post-Brexit trade and policy
- Institutional investors and pension funds assessing UK macroeconomic and ESG risk
Audience outcomes
- A framework for understanding how fiscal pressure, geopolitical risk, and the green transition interact as a single investment decision
- Clarity on the UK-EU, US tariff, and China dynamics that are directly affecting corporate capital allocation
- An evidence-based rebuttal to the assumption that net-zero and economic competitiveness are in conflict
- Better understanding of how UK industrial strategy is being shaped and what it means for investment planning
- Context on how financial stability risks – sovereign debt, monetary tightening, energy costs – are translating into business conditions in the near term