John Stephenson, BA (Hons), BCom (Hons), MSc
Years ago I read a finance minister's autobiography. I didn’t understand it. It talked about a thing called fiscal policy and about confronting pressure groups and being an agent of change. The ideas seemed important but I wanted to know more. So I set out to find out what she was on about.
Several years on, I’m still chasing down claims and counter-claims about economics and economic policy. The big difference is, today I have the tools and experience to weigh arguments and test evidence in a way I’d never anticipated.
I am driven to find hard evidence and build strong argument and to apply those values wherever I can make a difference.
My experience ranges from energy and regulatory matters through to economic development, sustainability and social policy.
I have worked internationally as a trade negotiator at the WTO and at the interface between political, environmental and economic affairs at the OECD in Paris.
I work hard to improve the quality of analysis and advice by testing the logic in conventional wisdom and by taking advantage of advances in computing power and access to data to apply innovative and powerful analysis.
Over the years I’ve discovered we know less about recipes for success than we do about recipes for failure. But – even if we don’t quite know the perfect way of putting them together – we do know about many of the ingredients for success. And the search for the perfect recipe is what makes life interesting.
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