Stephanie Flanders

Why organisations work with Stephanie Flanders

• She has operated inside all three institutions most relevant to corporate economic decision-making – government policymaking (US Treasury under Secretary Lawrence Summers), financial markets (J.P. Morgan Asset Management), and global economic journalism (BBC, Bloomberg) – in senior roles across all three. That convergence is not common at this level.
• As Head of Economics and Government at Bloomberg, she directs a team of approximately 250 economists and reporters globally, meaning her read on any macro development is backed by institutional-scale, real-time intelligence rather than public data alone.
• Her Trumponomics podcast – Bloomberg’s weekly tracker of US trade policy, tariffs, and monetary shifts – keeps her analysis immediately current on the exact questions boards and CFOs are most actively navigating.
• The RSA Inclusive Growth Commission she chaired (2016–2017) produced a policy framework that entered UK government debate – demonstrating an ability to move from macro diagnosis to practical recommendations that organisations and policymakers can act on.
• The Harold Wincott Foundation and the Political Studies Association each recognised her specifically for making economics decision-relevant to non-specialist audiences – the most direct indicator of her value in a board or senior leadership setting.

Biography highlights

• Head of Economics and Government at Bloomberg News; leads Bloomberg Economics, a team of approximately 250 economists and reporters worldwide
• Former BBC Economics Editor (2008–2013); creator and host of the BBC Radio 4 programme Stephanomics
• Former Chief Market Strategist for Europe, J.P. Morgan Asset Management (2013–2017)
• Speechwriter and senior advisor to US Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, Clinton Administration (1997–2001)
• Chair, RSA Inclusive Growth Commission (2016–2017); produced a published policy framework for place-based inclusive growth adopted in UK policy debate
• Harold Wincott Foundation Award (2010); Wincott Foundation Broadcaster of the Year (2011); Political Studies Association Broadcaster of the Year (2012)
• Honorary Fellow, Balliol College, Oxford; Fellow, Society of Professional Economists
• Kennedy Scholar, Harvard Kennedy School (MPA); first-class PPE degree, University of Oxford

Biography

Economic signals have never been harder to read – or more consequential to misread. Tariff shocks, central bank divergence, and geopolitical realignment are arriving on the desks of boards and CFOs as direct operational challenges, not background conditions. Stephanie Flanders has spent three decades building the analytical toolkit to respond to exactly this. As Head of Economics and Government at Bloomberg News, she leads a global team of approximately 250 economists and reporters whose analysis informs governments, investors, and corporate leaders worldwide.

Her authority comes from a career that spans all three domains most relevant to organisational economic decision-making: policy, markets, and media. As speechwriter and senior advisor to US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers under the Clinton administration, she worked inside economic policymaking at its highest level. As Chief Market Strategist for Europe at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, she translated macro signals directly into investment positioning. At the BBC, where she served as Economics Editor for five years, she developed the rare skill of making those dynamics legible to senior non-specialist audiences – work recognised by the Harold Wincott Foundation Award in 2010 and the Political Studies Association’s Broadcaster of the Year award in 2012.

At Bloomberg, she hosts Trumponomics, the weekly podcast tracking how US trade policy, tariffs, and monetary decisions are reshaping global markets and corporate strategy. Her chairmanship of the RSA Inclusive Growth Commission (2016–2017) reflects a parallel capacity: taking economic analysis beyond description and into practical frameworks that governments and organisations can use – the commission’s final report directly shaped UK government policy thinking on inclusive economic development.

Flanders holds a first-class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Balliol College, Oxford – of which she is an Honorary Fellow – and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School, where she studied as a Kennedy Scholar. She is a Fellow of the Society of Professional Economists.

Key speaking topics

• Global macroeconomic conditions and market dynamics
• US trade policy, tariffs, and protectionism
• Geopolitical risk and the fracturing global economic order
• Central bank policy and monetary divergence
• Economic forecasting and scenario planning
• Inclusive growth and the political economy of inequality
• Translating economic signals for strategic decision-making

Ideal for

• Boards and C-suite leadership teams making capital allocation, market, or supply chain decisions under macro uncertainty
• CFOs, treasurers, and chief investment officers assessing policy and geopolitical risk exposure
• Financial services organisations, institutional investors, and asset managers
• Public affairs and policy leaders tracking the implications of US trade policy and global regulatory shifts

Audience outcomes

• A working framework for reading macro-economic and geopolitical signals in terms of their direct strategic implications – rather than as headline events
• Clearer understanding of how current US trade and monetary policy is likely to affect specific sectors, markets, and corporate exposure
• Greater confidence separating signal from noise in fast-moving economic and geopolitical news cycles
• Practical language and conceptual tools for board-level conversations about macro risk and economic uncertainty
• A more grounded sense of where the global economic order is heading and what the realistic scenarios are for business planning