Zanny Minton Beddoes Keynote Speaker

Expert on global economic issues
Editor-in-Chief, The Economist (2015-present)
Named one of the “Most Powerful Women in the World” by Forbes

Zanny Minton Beddoes's Biography

Zanny Minton Beddoes is the Editor-in-Chief of The Economist. Previously she was the business affairs editor, responsible for the newspaper’s coverage of business, finance and science.

Prior to this role, she was The Economist’s economics editor, overseeing the newspaper’s global economics coverage from her base in Washington DC. Before moving to Washington in April 1996, Ms. Minton Beddoes was The Economist’s emerging-markets correspondent based in London. She travelled extensively in Latin America and Eastern Europe, writing editorials and country analyses. She has written surveys of the World Economy, Latin American finance, global finance and Central Asia.

Ms. Minton Beddoes joined The Economist in 1994 after spending two years as an economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where she worked on macroeconomic adjustment programmes in Africa and the transition economies of Eastern Europe. Before joining the IMF, she worked as an adviser to the Minister of Finance in Poland, as part of a small group headed by Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard University.

Ms. Minton Beddoes has written extensively about international financial issues including enlargement of the European Union, the future of the International Monetary Fund and economic reform in emerging economies. She has published in Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy, contributed chapters to several conference volumes and, in 1997, edited “Emerging Asia”, a book on the future of emerging-markets in Asia, published by the Asian Development Bank. In May 1998 she testified before Congress on the introduction of the Euro.

Ms. Minton Beddoes is a regular television and radio commentator on BBC, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, CNN and CNBC.

She holds degrees from Oxford University and Harvard University.

She brings unrivalled authority on the global economy as Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, shaping how leaders understand business, finance, technology, and geopolitics.
She translates complex economic and financial trends into clear strategic insight, informed by decades overseeing global coverage of markets, policy, and emerging economies.
She offers rare perspective on international institutions and economic reform, drawing on hands-on experience at the International Monetary Fund and advising governments during periods of transition.
She helps senior audiences make sense of economic disruption and policy change, grounded in deep reporting across Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the United States.
Her briefings equip leaders to engage confidently with global uncertainty, combining editorial rigour with practical understanding of how economic decisions play out in the real world.