Committee members' biographies

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

Originally appointed on 7 December 2007, the committee members are Professor David Metcalf CBE (Chair), Dr Martin Ruhs, Professor Jonathan Wadsworth, Dr Diane Coyle OBE and Professor Robert Wilson. Mark Spilsbury of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills is an ex officio member of the committee.

In 2010 the government reappointed the members for the following terms:

• Professor David Metcalf CBE until 4 August 2013;
• Professor Jonathan Wadsworth and Dr Martin Ruhs until 14 November 2013; and
• Dr Diane Coyle OBE and Professor Rob Wilson until 14 November 2012.

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

David Metcalf is emeritus professor at the Centre for Economic Performance 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 over 100 publications on employment relations and labour economics, as well as many newspaper articles.

David 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.

Dr Martin Ruhs

Dr Martin Ruhs is senior economist, and director of the Migration Observatory, at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at Oxford University. His research focuses on the economics and politics of labour immigration, with a strong international comparative dimension. His latest book (jointly edited with Bridget Anderson) is Who Needs Migrant Workers? Labour Shortages, Immigration and Public Policy (Oxford University Press, 2010).

In 2007-08 Martin served as specialist adviser to a House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee inquiry into the economic impacts of immigration in the UK. He has advised the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

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 OBE

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

She was an economist at the UK 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 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 UK's Competition Commission and a member of the BBC Trust. She serves on the Research Committee of the Economic and Social Science research Council, 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 UK labour market. He is a full-time researcher and deputy director of the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick. He leads the institute's labour market forecasting work, although he has also researched and published on many other aspects of labour market behaviour. He has played a leading role in developing approaches to anticipating changing skills needs using quantitative methods. This includes the Working Futures series of labour market projections in the UK and path-breaking labour market assessment and forecasting work at a pan-European level for Cedefop (the European Centre for Vocational Education and Training). He was also responsible (in collaboration with colleagues at Cambridge) for developing the UK-focused Local Economy Forecasting Model software package.

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. As well as co-editing Working Futures, 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; and Research and Development Statistics and Engineers in Top Management. He is also a member of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills Expert Panel.

Lesley Giles (ex-officio member)

Lesley is currently Deputy Director at the UK Commission for Employment and Skills where she has worked since April 2008. In this role she has managed a team providing research, labour market and policy analysis and taken a lead role on delivering core aspects of the UK Commission work programme. Her work has sought to ensure that research analysis and policy development on UK skills, employment and workforce performance is evidence based and is more effectively communicated and translated in ways that maximise its impact. Prior to this, Lesley was Acting Director for Strategy and Research (2006-08), and Head of Research (2002-06), at the Sector Skills Development Agency, an umbrella organisation, set up in 2002 to license and performance manage the Sector Skills Councils as part of the Skills for Business network.

In addition, Lesley has worked in a variety of other research roles across government undertaking skills and/or employment research: including for the Department for Education and Employment, the Employment Service and the Cabinet Office. Prior to joining the government, Lesley was a researcher for the Institute for Employment Research, the University of Portsmouth's Business School, and the University of Central England. Her research interests cover skills, employment and human resource management. She is also a graduate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.