Biography

Charles Leadbeater is one of the world’s leading authorities on innovation and creativity in organisations.

Charles Leadbeater is an independent writer, speaker and adviser to leading companies on innovation, entrepreneurship and the knowledge economy. His book on the rise of the knowledge economy, Living on Thin Air: The New Economy was published in the UK in 1999 and then in Italian, Chinese, German and Korean as well as in the US as The Weightless Society. His subsequent book Up the Down Escalator: Why the Global Pessimists are Wrong was published by Penguin in July 2002.

He speaks at conferences around the world on innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as for leading companies such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, British Telecom, Ericsson, Microsoft and Swiss Re. He spent ten years working on the Financial Times where he was Labour Editor, Industrial Editor and Tokyo Bureau Chief before becoming the paper's Features Editor.

Charles has been an adviser to the Downing St Policy Unit and the British government's Department of Trade and Industry on the rise of the Internet and the knowledge driven economy. He drafted the British government White Paper - Our Competitive Future: Building the Knowledge Driven Economy published in December 1998, the Science White Paper published in July 2000 and helped to draft the Communications White Paper published in December 2000 and the Competitiveness White Paper published in January 2001.

He drew up the initial plan for the Department of Culture's project Culture Online, which is promoting digital access to publicly funded museums, galleries and arts.

Charles has advised a wide range of leading companies including Channel Four Television, Discovery Europe, Atlas Venture, Ericsson, Accenture, British Telecom, as well as organisations The Inland Revenue, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Charles is a Senior Research Associate with the independent think-tank Demos, and has written reports and pamphlets on social entrepreneurship, civic entrepreneurship in the public sector, and the rise of knowledge entrepreneurs. Recent projects include reports on the future of television, innovation in public services and the politics of globalisation. He also works closely with the international design company Ideo advising companies on creating cultures and strategies for innovation.

He was educated at the Vyne Comprehensive School in Basingstoke, won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford and left in 1981 with a first class degree in Politics Philosophy and Economics. After a stint with the breakfast television station TV-am he joined Weekend World the current affairs programme before moving to the Financial Times.

He has advised companies, cities and governments around the world on innovation strategy and he is reportedly Tony Blair's favorite corporate thinker.