Mr. Stephens is associate editor of the Financial Times and the newspaper`s chief political commentator. He has been the FT’s economics editor, political editor, and editor of the UK edition. He is a well-known author, commentator, and broadcaster. Before joining the FT he was a correspondent for Reuters in London and Brussels. He is a member of the Council of the Ditchley Foundation, a member of the advisory council of the Institute for Public Policy Research, a board member of the Franco-British Colloque, and a Fulbright fellow. Mr. Stephens is the author of a biography of Tony Blair and of Politics and the Pound, a study of the British Government’s exchange rate management and its relations with Europe since 1979. In 2008, Mr. Stephens won the British Press Awards’ Political Journalist of the Year. He was educated at Wimbledon College and at Oxford University, where he earned an honours degree in modern history. He was named political journalist of the year by the Political Studies Association in 2005 and was the winner of the 2002 David Watt Prize for outstanding political journalism.