LSE is delighted to welcome back to campus alumna Ruth Porat (MSc Industrial Relations 1981), Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Alphabet and Google and journalist, television presenter and LSE alumnus Martin Lewis (BSc Government and Law 1994), – founder of Money Saving Expert and The Money & Mental Health Policy Institute, to take part in the launch of LSE 2030, our strategy to shape the world. 

LSE Director, Minouche Shafik (MSc Economics 1986) and Ruth will take part in a fireside chat about the role of LSE and how it can shape the world in turbulent times of economic uncertainty and social transformations. Their discussion will also touch on the importance of diversity, lifelong learning and Ruth’s own career path from her time as an MSc student at LSE, to her current leadership role.

Following this Minouche will be in conversation with Martin where they discuss his time at LSE (where he was elected General Secretary of the Students' Union) and his ongoing relationship with the School (he serves as a Governor) and the impact that has had on his hugely successful career in a number of different industries. 

Ruth Porat is Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Alphabet and Google. Ruth joined Google as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in May 2015 and has also held the same title at Alphabet since it was created in October 2015. Prior to joining Alphabet, Ruth was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Morgan Stanley. At Morgan Stanley, Ruth held roles that included Vice Chairman of Investment Banking, Co-Head of Technology Investment Banking and Global Head of the Financial Institutions Group. Ruth is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Institute Economic Strategy Group and the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution. Ruth holds a BA from Stanford University, an MSc from London School of Economics and Political Science and an MBA from the Wharton School.

Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis), the Money Saving Expert, is a campaigning broadcast journalist who is founder and Chair of MoneySavingExpert.com, the UK’s biggest money website – Just under 14 million people have opted to receive his weekly email. He’s due to start the ninth series of his own prime-time ITV show soon, and is resident expert on many others, and has columns in periodical and newspapers including the Sunday Mirror. In 2016 he founded and funded the influential Money and Mental Health Policy Institute charity, which he now chairs. Over the years he’s spearheaded major financial justice campaigns including bank charges reclaiming (over seven million template letters downloaded) and PPI reclaiming (£34.4 billion has been paid out) and a  large-scale campaign to get financial education on the national curriculum. He was awarded an OBE for his contribution to consumer rights and charity work.

Minouche Shafik is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to this she was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. An economist by training, Dame Minouche Shafik has spent most of her career straddling the worlds of public policy and academia. After completing her BSc in economics and politics at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, she took an MSc in economics at LSE before completing a DPhil in economics at St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford. 

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #ShapeTheWorld

Podcast 

A podcast of this event is available to download from Understand Today, Shape Tomorrow.

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.