Roger Bootle

Roger Paul Bootle was born in Watford. He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Merton College, Oxford before completing his graduate studies at Nuffield College. Bootle began his career in the academic world as a lecturer in Economics at St Anne's College, Oxford.

He worked as an economist for Capel-Cure Myers and Lloyds Merchant Bank. From 1989 until 1998, he was an economist at Midland Bank/HSBC, rising to the position of Group Chief Economist of the HSBC group. During the John Major government in the 1990s, he was appointed to the UK treasury's panel of economic forecasters under Kenneth Clarke.

Bootle founded the consultancy Capital Economics in 1999. He and Capital Economics won the £250,000 Wolfson Economics Prize in 2012, "for the best plan for dealing with member states leaving the eurozone".

In 2014, Bootle sold a stake in Capital Economics to part of Lloyds Banking Group; the transaction valued his company at £70 million. Two years later, he changed to being part-time chairman. Phoenix Equity Partners purchased a majority stake in the consultancy from Bootle in 2018; this valued the business at £95 million. Bootle retained his role and a reduced financial interest in Capital Economics.

Bootle is a eurosceptic and a member of Economists for Free Trade, formerly called Economists for Brexit, a group of independent economists. The Trouble with Europe is among the books that he has written.