Andrew Gowers

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This article is about the editor. For the Australian Rules footballer, see Andrew Gowers (footballer)

Andrew Gowers (1957 - ) was appointed editor of the Financial Times in October 2001. He left this post in November 2005 due to disagreements over strategy with the Financial Times' owner, Pearson PLC.

In 2006 he accepted a job offer from Lehman Brothers, the US-based global investment bank, to work in corporate communications.

After graduating from Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, Gowers began his journalistic career in 1980 when he joined Reuters as a graduate trainee. In 1981, he was appointed Brussels correspondent, and in 1982 he became Zurich correspondent.

[edit] Financial Times

He joined the Financial Times in 1983 on the foreign desk in London. In 1984, he became agriculture correspondent and in 1985 he was appointed commodities editor. Two years later, he became Middle East editor, in 1990 features editor, and in 1992, foreign editor. He was appointed deputy editor in 1994.

Gowers co-authored a biography of Yasser Arafat published in 1990, which was republished in an updated version in 2003.

From July 1997, he spent 15 months as acting editor while the editor, Richard Lambert, was in New York to launch the new US edition of the Financial Times. In January 1999, Andrew Gowers was appointed founding editor of a new German-language business newspaper, Financial Times Deutschland, a joint venture between the Financial Times Group and Gruner und Jahr, one of Germany's leading newspaper and magazine publishers. FT Deutschland launched in February 2000.

[edit] post-Financial Times

On Friday, 2nd December 2005, he was commissioned by Gordon Brown to lead an independent review of intellectual property rights in the UK, known as the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property. Amongst other things, this review was set up to consider the implications of extending the copyright on sound recordings in the UK.

In March 2006, he was appointed head of corporate communications, advertising and brand & marketing strategy for Lehman Brothers in Europe.

He has recently published the Gowers Review. He is married with two children.

Preceded by Richard Lambert

Editor of The Financial Times 2001 - 2005

Succeeded by Lionel Barber