Richard John Micklethwait CBE (born 11 August 1962)^[1] is editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, a position he has held since February 2015.^[2] A British journalist, he was previously the editor-in-chief of The Economist from 2006 to 2015.

Life and career

Micklethwait was born in 1962, in London, and was educated at Ampleforth College (an independent school) and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied history. He worked for Chase Manhattan Bank for two years and joined The Economist in 1987. Prior to becoming editor-in-chief, he was United States editor of the publication and ran the New York Bureau for two years. Before that, he edited the Business Section of the newspaper for four years. His other roles have included setting up an office in Los Angeles for The Economist, where he worked from 1990 to 1993. He has covered business and politics from the United States, Latin America, Continental Europe, Southern Africa and most of Asia.

Appointed as editor-in-chief on 23 March 2006, the first issue of The Economist published under his editorship was released on 7 April 2006. He was named Editors' Editor by the British Society of Magazine Editors in 2010.^[3] Micklethwait has frequently appeared on CNN, ABC News, BBC, C-SPAN, PBS and NPR.

In 2015 he was appointed as a Trustee of the British Museum.^[4] He was also a delegate, along with two colleagues, at the 2010 Bilderberg Conference held in Spain. This group consists of an assembly of notable politicians, industrialists and financiers who meet annually to discuss issues on a non-disclosure basis.

Micklethwait was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to journalism and economics.^[5]

In November 2019, Micklethwait ordered his staff not to investigate their boss, Michael Bloomberg, nor any other Democratic candidates, during Bloomberg's presidential campaign.^[6]