Janis Rachel Lomax (born 15 July 1945) is a British economist, banker, and former government official who served asDeputy Governor of the Bank of England, sitting on theMonetary Policy Committee from 1 July 2003 to 30 June 2008.[1]
Lomax was born inSwansea, Wales. She was educated at the independentRossall Preparatory School andCheltenham Ladies' College, and graduated fromGirton College, Cambridge with anMA in 1966, before obtaining anMSc in economics from theLondon School of Economics in 1968.[2]
After graduating from LSE in 1968, she joinedHM Treasury, where she worked on a range of macroeconomic, monetary, and financial issues. She was in successionPrincipal Private Secretary to theChancellor of the ExchequerNigel Lawson in 1985–86, then a deputy secretary at the Treasury, and then DeputyChief Economic Adviser in 1990–94. In 1994–95, she was head of the Economic and Domestic Secretariat at theCabinet Office.[2]
From 1995 to 1996, she was a vice-president of theWorld Bank and chief of staff to thePresident of the World Bank. From 1996 to 2003 she was in turnspermanent secretary at four government departments. She was permanent secretary at theWelsh Office from 1996 to 1999, where she oversaw the setting up of theNational Assembly for Wales. Afterwards, from 1999 to 2002, Lomax was permanent secretary of theDepartment of Social Security and then from 2001 its successor, theDepartment for Work and Pensions. Then in 2002–2003 Lomax served as Permanent Secretary at theDepartment for Transport, having moved there with her Secretary of StateAlistair Darling when prime ministerTony Blair reshuffled his cabinet following the resignation—in highly charged and controversial circumstances—of theSecretary of State for TransportStephen Byers.[2]
From 2003 to 2008 she was a deputy governor at theBank of England, serving on itsMonetary Policy Committee, where she was "one of the more moderate, centrist figures".[3] She left "just before thecollapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008"[4] reportedly to "pursue other interests".[3]
In December 2008, she became an independentnon-executive director ofHSBC Holdings,[5] where she is also a member of the audit and risk committees.[6] In December 2010 she joinedBAA (now Heathrow Airport Holdings) as a non-executive director, and she is also a non-executive director ofSerco, and a trustee ofImperial College London, and has served as President of theInstitute of Fiscal Studies.[7]
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Lomax is on the Board of theRoyal National Theatre and ofDe Montfort University inLeicester. In June 2007 she received an honorary degree from theUniversity of Glasgow.
She married Michael Acworth Lomax in 1967; they divorced in 1990. The couple has two sons and now have 4 granddaughters.[citation needed]
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| Preceded by | Permanent Secretary of the Welsh Office 1996–1999 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Permanent Secretary of the Department of Social Security 1999–2001 | Succeeded by Department replaced byDepartment for Work and Pensions |
| Preceded by none | Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions 2001–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Permanent Secretary of the Department for Transport 2002–2003 | Succeeded by |
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