Committee members' biographies

This page lists the current members of the Migration Advisory Committee.

Appointed on 7 December 2007, the committee members are Dr Martin Ruhs, Professor Jonathan Wadsworth, Dr Diane Coyle and Professor Robert Wilson. Mike Campbell of the Commission for Employment and Skills is an ex officio member of the committee.

Professor David Metcalf CBE (Chair of the Migration Advisory Committee)

David Metcalf is Professor of Industrial Relations at the London School of Economics and has been a visiting professor at Princeton University and the Australian National University. He has worked extensively on the economic impact of unions and on pay systems and structures. He has produced over 100 publications on employment relations and labour economics, as well as many newspaper articles.

Metcalf was a member of the Low Pay Commission from its formation in 1997 until 2007. This is the body that recommends the level of the national minimum wage to Government and monitors, reviews and evaluates its impact. Presently he is a member of the Senior Salaries Review Body which recommends pay for judges, top military, senior civil servants, MPs and senior NHS managers.

Metcalf's expertise in labour market issues, and experience of providing the Government with independent evidence-based advice, provides a solid foundation for ensuring the Migration Advisory Committee's success.

Dr Martin Ruhs

Dr Martin Ruhs is an economist at the ESRC Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford. He specialises in the economics and politics of labour immigration, with a strong international comparative dimension. Martin has conducted studies of the impacts and policy implications of labour immigration in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Thailand and Kuwait. His recent research and publications have focused on migrants in low-wage jobs in the Untied Kingdom, employer demand for migrant labour, illegality in migrant labour markets, temporary migration programmes and migrant rights.

In addition to his academic work, Martin has provided policy analysis and advice for various national governments and international institutions including the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM).

Professor Jonathan Wadsworth

Professor Jonathan Wadsworth of the Economics Department at Royal Holloway College, University of London has accumulated over 20 years' experience of academic-related work on labour market issues after studying first at the University of Hull and then at the London School of Economics.

His main area of interest is applied labour economics, focusing on issues of immigration, inequality, unemployment compensation schemes, job search, labour mobility, job tenure, wages, unions, health, economic inactivity and labour markets in Eastern Europe.

Professor Wadsworth co-developed the concept of workless households and its measurement and is the co-editor of The State of Working Britain volumes, a publication aimed at academics and policymakers, which highlights and comments on significant developments in the labour market.

Dr Diane Coyle

Dr Diane Coyle attended the University of Oxford, and gained a PhD in Economics from Harvard University, graduating in 1985.

She was an advisor to the Untied Kingdom Treasury from 1985 to 1986. She later became European Editor of the Investors Chronicle and was economics editor of The Independent up to 2001.

Diane Coyle is Managing Director of Enlightenment Economics, an economic consultancy to large corporate clients and international organisations, specialising in new technologies and globalisation. She is also visiting Professor at the University of Manchester's Institute for Political and Economic Governance. She has written several books on economics.

In addition, she is a member of the United Kingdom's Competition Commission and is a member of the BBC Trust. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Centre for Economic Policy Research and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Professor Robert Wilson

Professor Wilson is a labour economist with over 30 years' experience of analysing and assessing the United Kingdom labour market. He is a full-time researcher in the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick, a professional economist working primarily in the field of labour economics. He leads the Institute's labour market forecasting work, although he has also researched and published on many other aspects of labour market behaviour.

Professor Wilson has a strong interest in the labour markets for highly qualified persons, especially professional scientists and engineers; this includes the study of their roles within organisations as well as the education, training and employment situations affecting these occupations overall. A major area of his work has been concerned with evaluating the costs and benefits of investment in human capital. He was responsible (in collaboration with colleagues at Cambridge) for developing the Local Economy Forecasting Model software package. He has also been engaged in projects to develop an approach to labour market assessment and forecasting at a pan-European level.

As well as co-editing Working Futures and Skills in England, he has written and edited a number of books including The National Health Service and the Labour Market; Employment Forecasting in the Construction Industry; Technical Change: The Role of Scientists and Engineers; Research and Development Statistics and Engineers in Top Management.

Professor Mike Campbell (ex officio member)

Mike is Director of Research and Policy at the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), responsible for advising Government on the policies, strategies and targets required to be World Class and for assessing the UK's progress towards it. He is co-author of Ambition 2020: World Class Skills and Jobs for the UK (2009); UKCES's landmark report on the UK's progress towards World Class skills and jobs. Previously, he was Director of Development at the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) where he was responsible for championing and leading the Skills for Business network's thinking and evidence base on the skills and productivity agenda.

Mike was Adviser to the Leitch Review of UK Skill Needs; is a currently member of the Northern Ireland Employment and Skills Board, a member of the European Commission's Expert Advisory Group on 'New Skills for New Jobs'. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; an Investors in People Ambassador; and a Business Action on Skills Champion. He holds a Visiting Professorship in Economics at Durham Business School and was awarded the OBE for services to economic development in the 2004 New Years Honours List.

Prior to joining the SSDA he was Director of the Policy Research Institute, which he founded in 1988 and built into a 25 person, seven figure turnover business. He has undertaken work for the European Commission, the OECD, the World Bank, DfES (now BIS), Regional Development Agencies, Learning and Skills Councils and Local Authorities. He is a designated European Commission and OECD expert.