Colin Mayer CBE
Emeritus Professor
- colin.mayer@sbs.ox.ac.uk
Saïd Business School
University of Oxford
Park End Street
Oxford
OX1 1HP
Profile
Colin Mayer is Emeritus Professor of Management Studies at the Blavatnik School of Government and Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford
He is an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford and an Honorary Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford and St Anne’s College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and the European Corporate Governance Institute. He was Chair of the Scottish Government Business Purpose Commission, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Oxford Playhouse, the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, the UK Government Natural Capital Committee, the International Advisory Board of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, and the UK Financial Markets Law Committee Working Group on Pension Fund Trustees and Fiduciary Duties.
He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to business education and the administration of justice in the economic sphere.
Colin was the first professor at Saïd Business School in 1994, the Peter Moores Dean of the Business School between 2006 and 2011, and the first Director of the Oxford Financial Research Centre between 1998 and 2005. He was a Harkness Fellow at Harvard University, a Houblon-Norman Fellow at the Bank of England, the first Leo Goldschmidt Visiting Professor of Corporate Governance at the Solvay Business School, Université de Bruxelles, and has had visiting positions at Columbia, MIT and Stanford universities.
Colin was chairman of Oxera Ltd. between 1986 and 2010 and assisted in building the company into what is now one of the largest independent economics consultancies in Europe. He was a founding director of the energy modelling company, Aurora Energy Research Ltd. He advises companies, governments, international agencies, and regulators around the world, and he led the British Academy enquiry into 'the Future of the Corporation in 2017. You can read more about his background and his academic career in this extensive interview he did at the time with The British Academy.
Research
Colin's research focuses on corporate finance, governance, regulation, taxation, and the role of the corporation in contemporary society. He has worked on the purpose of business, international comparisons of financial systems, corporate governance and their effects on the control, financing, and performance of firms.
Publications
He is the author of a trilogy of books published by Oxford University Press:
Inequality, firms, ownership and governance(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- Oxford Open Economics
Seeing double corporate reporting through the materiality lenses of both investors and nature(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- Accounting Forum
Lessons from successful ‘turnaround’ cities for the UK(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- Navigating Economic Change
The board's role in sustainability: a new framework for getting directors behind ESG efforts(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- Harvard Business Review
Business in times of crisis(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- Oxford Review of Economic Policy