William Keegan

William James Gregory Keegan CBE (born 3 July 1938) is a journalist and a fiction and non-fiction author. He was Economics Editor of The Observer from 1977 to 2003, and continues to contribute to the paper as a columnist.

Education and early life

Keegan was educated at Wimbledon College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He completed his national service in the Royal Tank Regiment from 1957 to 1959.

Career

Keegan became a journalist at the Financial Times in 1963, moving to the Daily Mail in 1964, then returning to the Financial Times for 9 years in 1967. He then worked in the Bank of England Economics Intelligence Department, and as assistant to the Bank's Governor, from 1976 to 1977.

From 1977 to 2003 he was Economics Editor of The Observer, and continuing there after age 65 as a Senior Economics Commentator.

He has sat on a number of committees and advisory boards, beginning in 1981 on the BBC Advisory committee on Business and Industrial affairs. Keegan has authored 2 fiction books, in 1974 and 1976, and 8 economics and politics books, between 1978 and 2012.

In 1989 Keegan became a visiting professor of journalism at the University of Sheffield, and in 2012 a visiting professor of economics at Queen Mary University of London. He is also a visiting professor at The Policy Institute, King's College London, and is also involved in The Strand Group seminar series there.

In 2009 Keegan received a CBE for services to journalism.

Personal life

Keegan is married to a barrister. They live in Islington, London. He has seven children, including four from a previous marriage.

His brother, Victor Keegan, is a journalist at The Guardian.