CBI boss Richard Lambert to step down next year

Jun 29 2010 by Iain Laing, The Journal

CBI boss Richard Lambert is to step down in 2011 after nearly five years at the helm of the influential business lobby group.

The CBI said Mr Lambert – who took up the post of director general in July 2006 – is to leave early next year. It confirmed headhunters have been appointed to lead a search for his successor.

Mr Lambert said it was the “right time in the political and economic cycle for me to hand over to a new director-general”.

He added: “The new Government is generating policy issues which the CBI is getting stuck into. And the economy is moving into a new phase, in which business investment and trade will be the essential engines of recovery.”

The CBI praised Mr Lambert for his “experience and wise counsel” throughout the credit crunch and subsequent recession, which dominated his tenure at the group.

The former editor of the Financial Times, who has been a supporter of The Journal’s Great North Revolution campaign, said he had “no definite plans” for his future.