Distinguished alumni
Dr Ian Sheperdson
BSc Banking and Finance 1988; PhD Economics 1993
Chief Economist, Pantheon Macroeconomics
Ian was recognised for his outstanding career and contribution to economics with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2015.
Ian is the Chief Economist and CEO of Pantheon Macroeconomics Ltd, an independent research firm founded in 2012 providing subscription-based research to global financial institutions from its offices in Newcastle, New York and London. Ian has been in the independent research business from 1998; previously he was the Chief USA Economist for HSBC based in New York. From 1990 through 1996 Ian was based in London, latterly as the Chief UK Economist for HSBC.
Ian's mission is to present complex economic ideas in a clear, understandable and actionable manner to financial market professionals. His ability to make robust, non-consensus calls and to defend his views with hard analysis has earned him a consistent following in the markets and plaudits from the media over many years. Ian has been lauded in the New York Times as “consistently right” and is a double winner of the Wall Street Journal’s annual US economic forecasting competition.
In recent years Ian was one of the very first analysts to warn that a crash in the US housing market would drive the economy into deep recession, and that a full recovery would take many years. He is a persistent critic of central banks, especially the US Federal Reserve, and prefers to listen to the message from the real economy rather than policymakers.
During his time at Loughborough Ian resided in Rutherford hall where he was Treasurer in 1987 and met his future wife, Christine. He represented the University as a fencer and enjoyed skiing and arguing with his lecturers.