Dr Rebecca Harding

CEO, Centre for Economic Security

Dr Rebecca Harding is a Senior Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group and an independent trade economist, public speaker and sustainable trade and supply chain specialist. In 2022, she was awarded the Net Zero Entrepreneur of the Year at the annual Scale Up Group’s Enterprise Awards event. She has built three data-based technology businesses in the trade and sustainability space and held senior positions at Deloitte, London Business School, the Work Foundation, and UK Finance, where she was Chief Economist. She acted as Specialist Adviser to the Treasury Select Committee and advised the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Entrepreneurship. She has acted as a trade finance and supply chains expert witness, is a member of the World Trade Board, the ITFA’s ESG Committee and the ICC’s sustainable trade finance technology sub-committee. Between 2004 and 2018, she was a Director and Trustee of the German-British Forum.

Her co-authored books, The Weaponization of Trade: the Great Unbalancing of Politics and Economics and Gaming Trade: Win-Win Strategies for the Digital Era have defined the trade-based nature of modern conflict. She provided the business case for the adoption into UK law the framework to enable digital trade; her work on the ‘regulatory paradox’ of current sustainability reporting requirements has catalysed the establishment of the ITFA’s cross-industry Audit Council to set sustainability reporting and audit standards. She has authored 8 other books on the German economy, global innovation policy, and SME financing and venture capital. Her high media profile includes frequent appearances on BBC television and radio, Sky News, CNBC, and Times Radio, as well as citations in the broadsheet media.

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