Dr Jerome Booth

Areas of Interest

Business, Music

Honorary Award

Doctor of Business Administration, 2008

Biography

Dr Booth became Chairman of the Board of Anglia Ruskin University in 2015, stepping down from this role in 2020. He is a well-known economist, entrepreneur, investor, commentator and leading expert on emerging markets.

In 2013, he established New Sparta Limited, through which he manages his more active investments, including controlling interests in a number of companies in insurance, telecoms, film, journalism and publishing. These include CBC UK, New Call Telecom, ExaroNews, Business New Europe (BNE), Walpole Holdings, New Sparta Films, Icon Film Distribution UK and IO Entertainment.

He was previously Head of Research at Ashmore Group, a world-leading emerging markets asset management group that he helped establish in 1999 in a Management Buy-Out from ANZ Bank. Prior to ANZ he worked in the Strategic Planning unit of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., and before that as a Lecturer in Economics at Christ Church, Oxford and at the then Department of Trade and Industry.

In 2014, he published his first book, Emerging Markets in an Upside Down World, a critique of finance theory that challenges conventional economic wisdom about the developing world.

Jerome is also Chairman of the Fitzwilliam Museum Development Trust, Deputy Chairman of the Britten Sinfonia and a Council Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society. He is a Visiting Professor at Cass Business School and has a DPhil and an MPhil in Economics from Oxford University as well as a BSc in Geography from Bristol University.

In 2008 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration.

Citation

"It is my pleasure to read the Citation for Dr Jerome Booth for the award of Honorary Doctor of Business Administration.

They say fortune favours the brave and there is no one as brave as a man who can make a success of a career in the risky world of international finance. Jerome Booth, who is 45 and lives in Essex, is head of research for the Ashmore Group plc, a world leading emerging markets investments company valued at £2 billion last year. The group is listed on main LSE market, FTSE250 company and Jerome is the second largest shareholder.

He is a member of the Investment Committee and the 'public face' of the company regularly contributing to and quoted by the world's financial press to comment on the ever-changing situation financial situation impacting on countries like Russia or continents including Asia. The current Ashmore funds have over 1,800 investors across its investment themes, with a predominantly institutional investor base which includes pension plans, central banks and other government agencies, financial institutions and corporates.

Born in 1963 in Stratford upon Avon - his father was, at the time, a member of the Royal Shakespeare company - Jerome was educated at Kelly College, Devon. After completing his A Levels, Jerome took time out to experience an eye-opening trip to India with Oxfam. He then returned to the UK and went to Bristol University, where he took a BSc in Geography.

In 1985, he joined the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and studied for a Master of Philosophy in Economics at Oxford and then a Doctorate in Economics there. He also taught Economics at Oxford and started providing consultancy services while he was there, helping companies gain aid-financed contracts in developing countries. From 1991-1994, he was Strategic Planning Officer, then Senior Strategic Planning Officer with the Inter-American Development Bank, Washington. From 1994 to 1999, he worked for ANZ Grindlays; and was part of the team which then built ANZ Investment Bank. He was then part of the buy-out team of ANZ Emerging Markets Fund Management Limited, later re-named Ashmore. Ashmore, which manages US$37.5 billion, is headquartered in London, with offices in New York, Houston, Singapore, Brazil, India and Turkey.

Jerome is married with four children. When he is not working he likes to dedicate some of his spare time to his love of music. He sings in a choral society and plays double bass. He is also Director of the Ambrosiana Foundation, Washington, affiliated with the Ambrosiana Library in Italy, which houses collections of books, manuscripts and documents from the 5th to the 19th centuries, including prints and drawings by artists such as Raphael and Leonardo de Vinci. He is also a supporter of various charitable works.

We applaud him for his personal work and his immense achievements, in the field of economics, finance and world trade.

Dr Jerome Booth, I hereby invite the Vice Chancellor to confer upon you the award of Honorary Doctor of Business Administration."