Vasiliki "Vicky" Pryce (born July 15, 1952) is a British economist who was born in Greece. She previously held the position of Joint Head of the United Kingdom's Government Economic Service.
Currently, she works as the Chief Economic Adviser at the Centre for Economics and Business Research in London. She also serves on the organization's board. In 2023, she became a senior member of the British Chambers of Commerce's new Economic Advisory Council. Additionally, she is a visiting professor at Birmingham City University and King's College London.
On March 7, 2013, Pryce and her former husband, Chris Huhne, were found guilty of obstructing justice. Pryce was convicted in a trial, while Huhne admitted guilt. Both were sentenced to eight months in prison but served nine weeks each.
Early life
Pryce was born in Athens and was the middle child of three siblings. At the age of 11, she spent time with friends in the city and often returned home very late. Later, she rode a motorcycle. At 17, she moved to London. She studied at the LSE and earned a BSc in economics and an MSc in monetary economics.
Career
After university, she had a successful career as an economist and served as chief economist at Williams & Glyn's Bank (now part of the Royal Bank of Scotland) from 1973 to 1983. She later worked as a corporate economist for Exxon Europe from 1983 to 1986 and as chief economist at Peat Marwick McLintock and KPMG from 1986 to 2001. She took six weeks of leave for each child she had.
She left KPMG at Blackfriars in late 2001 and joined the London Economics consultancy. As of December 2021, she is on the advisory board of OMFIF, where she regularly participates in meetings about financial and monetary systems. In 2023, she became a senior member of the British Chambers of Commerce’s newly created Economic Advisory Council. This group was formed to support the organization’s Quarterly Economic Survey and to help create policies to improve the economy and businesses.
Pryce is a patron of Pro Bono Economics and the charity Working Chance. She is a trustee for Women in Prison and holds the titles of Freeman and Liveryman of the City of London.
In August 2002, she joined the Department for Trade and Industry as Chief Economic Adviser, the first woman to hold this position. Her salary was approximately £110,000. She also served as Chairwoman of the GoodCorporation, an organization that promotes ethical business practices.
From 2004 to 2007, she was Deputy Head of the UK Government Economic Service, and from 2007 to 2010, she was Joint Head. In 2009, she was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB), but this honor was canceled in 2013 after she was released from prison.
In April 2010, she left the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, where she had served as Director General, Economics, and Joint Head of the Government Economic Service. She then became a senior managing director at the finance consultancy FTI Consulting.
She was a visiting professor at City University’s Cass Business School from 2002 to 2006 and again from 2008 to 2011. She also taught at Imperial College Business School starting in 2010. She was a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, since 2008 and a fellow of the Society of Business Economists since 2005. She served on the Council of the Royal Society for the Arts from 2008 to 2009, the Council of the University of Kent, and the Council of the Royal Economic Society (REconS) from 2002 to 2007.
In 2010, she became the first woman to serve as Master of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants.
As of 2021, she is a visiting professor at Birmingham City University and King’s College London. She is also a fellow and council member of the UK Academy for Social Sciences, a fellow of the Society of Professional Economists, a companion of the British Academy of Management, an honorary senior fellow at Regent’s University, and a member of Regent’s University Court. She is also a fellow of the RADIX centre for Business, Politics and Society.
Books
This book, released in late 2022, helps students prepare for careers in economics. The authors, Vicky Pryce, Andy Ross, Alvin Birdi, and Ian Harwood, explain how to succeed in job interviews for graduate positions and what skills employers value. A video interview version is included with the purchase of the book.
Dr. Matthew Aldrich, an economics professor at the University of East Anglia, called the book "original" and said it covers practical issues well. Jarkko Immonen, a careers counselor at the University of Helsinki, described it as a detailed guide to the work world from an economist’s perspective, focusing on opportunities and how economics affects society. The book was published by Oxford University Press.
Subtitled "why we can't have it all in a free market economy," Women Vs Capitalism argues that capitalism needs to change to better support women. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves praised the 2019 book in The Observer as "fantastic" and said it highlights discrimination. In The Guardian, Polly Toynbee called it a "long overdue" analysis of gender equality through an economic lens.
This 2015 book is a clear and easy-to-understand guide for voters about the economy. It answers questions like "Does immigration help or harm the UK economy?" and "Are austerity measures the best way to handle a financial crisis?" It was published by Biteback Publishing and written with Andy Ross and Peter Urwin.
Published in 2015 as part of Biteback Publishing’s Provocations series, edited by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Why Women Need Quotas was co-written with Stefan Stern, a former editor at the Financial Times. The book argues that the UK is missing out on talent by not removing barriers to women’s advancement and suggests hiring women even if no one else wants to.
Co-authored with Michael Beverland and Beverley Nielsen, this 2015 book claims UK manufacturing has a poor public image. It shows that the sector’s challenges are often exaggerated and highlights real successes and strategies for growth.
In October 2013, Vicky Pryce published Prisonomics: Behind Bars in Britain’s Failing Prisons, based on her time at HM Prison East Sutton Park. The book discusses the economic and human costs of imprisoning women. Royalties from the book were donated to Working Chance, a charity that helps former female prisoners find jobs.
In October 2012, Biteback Publishing released Greekonomics, a book about the eurozone crisis, with a focus on Greece. The book explains what might happen if Greece left the eurozone and was intended for a wide audience, not just academics. It was shortlisted for Spear’s best business book of the year in 2013.
In early July 2013, Vicky Pryce gave expert testimony to the House of Lords cross-party subcommittee on economic and financial affairs. She said the eurozone crisis would take time to resolve because structural reforms are slow. She supported using a stimulus package and urged the European Central Bank to buy bonds.
Conviction
In 2011, Pryce was questioned twice by Essex Police about accusations that, in 2003, she had taken driving licence penalty points that belonged to her then-husband, Chris Huhne (who was an MEP at the time). She falsely said she was the driver and accepted the penalty points on his behalf so he would not be banned from driving.
In 2012, both Pryce and Huhne were charged with obstructing justice. Pryce said she was not guilty and tried to argue that her husband had forced her to act that way, but this defense was not accepted. In March 2013, she was found guilty of obstructing justice and received an eight-month prison sentence, the same as Huhne, who admitted guilt. Pryce served her sentence at HM Prison Holloway.
Pryce and Huhne were released from prison on 13 May 2013, but they were required to wear electronic tracking devices as part of their release conditions.
Personal life
In 1972, she married Gareth Pryce, a student who had completed graduate school at LSE. They divorced in 1981 after having two daughters together. In 1984, she married Chris Huhne, who later became a Member of the European Parliament, then a Liberal Democrat member of Parliament for Eastleigh, and a government official responsible for energy and climate change. They had three children and divorced in January 2011. She is now associated with Denis MacShane, a former member of Parliament who was sent to prison for submitting false expense claims.