Office for National Statistics appoints new chief economist

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has today announced the appointment of Grant Fitzner as its new chief economist, following the departure of Nick Vaughan who has moved to become the Chief Economic Adviser with the Government of the States of Jersey.

Mr Fitzner has held several prominent roles over a long career including being a senior economic adviser to the Australian government as well as more recently being chief economist at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

His civil service career has also included spells as a director at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and at NHS Improvement.

Mr Fitzner’s commercial experience includes working as a macroeconomist and market strategist for HSBC.

His most recent position was as the chief executive of Kantar Public UK, which is part of WPP.

Deputy National Statistician for Economic Statistics Jonathan Athow said: “Grant’s vast experience across government and the private sector will be invaluable to ONS as we continue to introduce new data sources and methods to complete the transformation of the UK’s economic statistics.”