Hugo Dixon
Born
Hugo Duncan Dixon

December 1963 (age 60)
NationalityBritish
EducationEton
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford
OccupationBusiness journalist
EmployerFormer editor of the Financial Times Lex column
Known forCo-founder, editor-in-chief and chairman Breakingviews
Parents
Relatives
Awards
Websitehugodixon.wordpress.com

Hugo Duncan Dixon (born December 1963) is a British business journalist and the former editor-in-chief and chairman of the financial commentary website Breakingviews which he co-founded. He was the editor of the Financial Times Lex column from 1994 to 1999, and a visiting fellow at Saïd Business School, Oxford University. He is the great-grandson of former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.

Early life

Hugo Duncan Dixon was born in December 1963[1][2] to the Conservative MP Piers Dixon and the artist Edwina Sandys. The couple divorced in 1970 when Dixon was six.[3] Dixon has an older brother, Mark Pierson Dixon, born in 1962.[4]

Education

Dixon was a King's Scholar at Eton and gained a first in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Balliol College, Oxford.[5]

Career

Dixon's first job was as an intern at The Economist in 1985. A year later, he became junior banking correspondent for the Financial Times (FT). In 1988, aged 24, he was seconded to work for the then Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Bob Maclennan to write the manifesto for the party's merger with the Liberals.[5] Voices and Choices For All[6] became known as 'the dead parrot document' after the famous Monty Python sketch[7][8] because, when Liberal MPs read about its proposals in this paper, they barricaded their leader David Steel into his Commons office and told him he would be turfed out if he backed the controversial document – copies of which had already been left for journalists waiting at the press conference to announce the merger. Dixon also began working as telecoms and electronics correspondent for the FT in the same year.[5]

In 1993 Dixon became leader writer for the FT,[5] and a year later became editor of the paper's Lex column.[9]

Breakingviews

Inspired by an interview with Bill Gates in 1999, Dixon quit his job at the FT and co-founded – with his colleague from the FT, Jonathan Ford – Breakingviews, a website providing financial commentary.[10][11] In 2007, Dixon and Ford fell out and Ford left to help set up a rival financial commentary website at Reuters.[5]

In 2009, Dixon sold Breakingviews to Reuters for £13 million, making himself £2.5 million,[10] with a retention bonus for Dixon to stay on as the website's editor for the following three years.[12] The move meant that Ford lost his position at Reuters.[13] Dixon continued as Breakingviews editor until 2012[12][14] when he became its commentator-at-large.[15] For a time, he contributed a fortnightly column to the website.[16]

Pro-EU activism

Dixon is pro-EU and opposed to Brexit.[17] He is the chair and editor-in-chief of InFacts, a website that focuses on facts and factual analysis about Brexit.[18][19]

Dixon has written several pro-EU articles for The Guardian[20] and The Independent[21] in the aftermath of the Referendum.[22]

Other roles

Dixon is a visiting fellow at Saïd Business School, Oxford University.[16]

Ancestry

Ancestors of Hugo Dixon
8. Pierson John Dixon (1868–1934)
4. Pierson Dixon
9. Helen Barbara (Nellie) Beales
2. Piers Dixon
10. Shirley Clifford Atchley
5. Alexandra Ismene Atchley
11. Anastasia Zersi Gerasi
1. Hugo Dixon
12. George Sandys (div. 1921)
6. Baron Duncan Sandys
13. Mildred Helen Cameron (div. 1921)
3. Hon. Edwina Sandys
14. Rt. Hon. Sir Winston Spencer-Churchill
7. Diana Churchill
15. Rt. Hon. Clementine Ogilvy Spencer-Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill

Bibliography

Awards

References

  1. ^ "Piers Dixon". The Times. 29 March 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  2. ^ "Obituaries: Well connected Conservative MP for Truro who was one of the last visitors to Churchill's death bed". Daily Telegraph. 25 March 2017. Issue no 50,388. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  3. ^ Gould Keil, Jennifer (12 September 2013). "Real Estate: Churchill's granddaughter puts SoHo loft on the market". New York Post. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  4. ^ Green, Michelle (11 July 1983). "Sir Winston's Granddaughter, Edwina Sandys, Is a Chip Off the Old Bloke". People. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d e Tryhorn, Chris (25 January 2010). "Hugo Dixon: 'Almost everything we do, the Financial Times tries to copy'". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  6. ^ Dixon, Hugo (1988). Voices and choices for all: policy declaration for the Social and Liberal Democrats. UK: Social and Liberal Democrats. OCLC 868375241.
  7. ^ Lee Williams, Geoffrey; Lee Williams, Alan (1989). "The beginning of the end". Labour's decline and the Social Democrat's fall. Basingstoke: Macmillan. p. 151. ISBN 9781349199488.
  8. ^ Douglas, Roy (2005). "Alliance and fusion". Liberals: a history of the Liberal and Liberal Democrat Parties. London New York: Hambledon and London. p. 296. ISBN 9780826443427.
  9. ^ "Executive Profile: Hugo Dixon". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  10. ^ a b Sabbagh, Dan (15 October 2009). "Business big shot: Hugo Dixon". The Times. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  11. ^ Ross Sorkin, Andrew (7 August 2000). "Cloak, dagger and mouse: a columnist defects to the web". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  12. ^ a b Sweney, Mark (17 October 2012). "Breakingviews founder Hugo Dixon to step back from editor role". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  13. ^ Perez-Pena, Richard (14 October 2009). "Thomson Reuters to buy business commentary site". The Times. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  14. ^ O'Shea, Mark (17 October 2012). "Reuters makes editor changes". Adweek. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  15. ^ "Hugo Dixon". Breakingviews. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  16. ^ a b "Hugo Dixon". Saïd Business School. Archived from the original on 28 August 2018 – via Internet Archive.
  17. ^ Dixon, Hugo (20 August 2018). "Bad deal or no-deal Brexit? There is a third way". Politico. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  18. ^ Snoddy, Ray (3 February 2017). "Hugo Dixon". In Publishing. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  19. ^ Payne, Adam (22 June 2016). "The EU referendum is ridiculous and it should not be taking place". Business Insider. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  20. ^ "Hugo Dixon". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  21. ^ "Hugo Dixon". The Independent. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  22. ^ "Hugo Dixon". infacts.org. InFacts. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  23. ^ Press Gazette (29 November 2007). "British Press Awards Past Winners". pressgazette.co.uk. Press Gazette. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  24. ^ McNally, Paul (25 April 2008). "Hat trick for Bloomberg, BBC, and FT at business awards". pressgazette.co.uk. Press Gazette. Retrieved 2 November 2018.

Further reading

External links

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