Charles Grant Keynote Speaker

In 1996, Charles Grant helped to found the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank devoted to making the European Union work better and strengthening its role in the world. In January 1998 he left The Economist to become the CER’s first director. He is the author of numerous CER publications, including “How to build a modern European Union” (2013), “Russia, China and global governance” (2012), “Is Europe doomed to fail as a power?” (2009) and “Cameron’s Europe: Can the Conservatives achieve their EU objectives?” (2009). He works on, among other subjects, EU foreign and defence policy, Russia, China, the euro and global governance.

After studying modern history at Cambridge University, Charles took a diploma in French politics at Grenoble University. Returning to London, Charles joined Euromoney, the financial magazine, in 1981. He moved to The Economist in 1986, where he wrote about the City. In 1987 he began a series of articles exposing the County NatWest-Blue Arrow scandal, which led to two Department of Trade and Industry inquiries and a long criminal trial.

In 1989 The Economist posted Charles to Brussels, to cover the European Community. In 1993 Charles returned to The Economist’s London office, and became defence editor in 1994. His biography of Commission President Jacques Delors (Delors: Inside the House that Jacques Built) appeared in 1994. It was subsequently translated into French, Japanese and Russian.