Tom Clougherty has been appointed the new Executive Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs. He will succeed IEA veteran Mark Littlewood in December, having beaten a strong final shortlist of four other candidates to the role earlier this week. Littlewood will become Senior Economics Fellow. Clougherty is currently Research Director & Head of Tax at the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS). The CPS say they’re sorry to lose him:

‘The IEA could not have made a better choice. During his time at the CPS, Tom has been a hugely valued colleague, friend and leader. On the policy front, his work on tax and investment has set the agenda both inside and outside government. We are very sorry to lose him, but wish him every possible success.”

Clougherty was previously the executive director of the Adam Smith Institute, and then editorial director in the Cato Institute’s Centre for Monetary and Financial Alternatives. He will have no doubt impressed the board with his work on pro-growth tax policy. Guido congratulates Tom on taking what is undoubtedly one of the biggest jobs in Westminster Wonk World…

Read Clougherty’s full statement below:

“I am delighted to have been chosen as the IEA’s next Executive Director and Ralph Harris Fellow. The IEA has been a source of inspiration and enlightenment throughout my career, so it is a huge privilege to be asked to lead it into a new era. There is no job in the world I would rather do.

“Mark Littlewood is a peerless communicator of free market ideas and has been a brilliant Director General for the past 14 years. It is an honour to follow in his footsteps, as well as those of his predecessors – not least the late Lord Harris of High Cross, without whose extraordinary efforts Britain might look very different today.

“Times have changed since the IEA was founded almost seven decades ago, but its educational and research mission is as vital as ever. There will be big challenges to classical liberal ideas in the years ahead and it is up to us to meet them head-on: by advancing public understanding of economics and by establishing the crucial role of markets in solving the very real problems we face. I can’t wait to get started.”