Lionel Barber

Lionel Barber (born 18 January 1955) is an English journalist. He was editor of the Financial Times (FT) from 2005 to 2020. Barber worked at The Scotsman and The Sunday Times before working at the FT from the mid-1980s. Barber was a well-regarded editor of the FT. He was credited with raising its journalistic standards, transforming it into a global brand, navigating its transition into the digital era, growing readership, and managing its takeover by Nikkei. Early life and career Barber was born on 18 January 1955 to a journalist father. He was educated at Dulwich College, an independent school for boys in Dulwich in South London, and at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, graduating in 1978 with an upper second joint honours degree in German and modern history. He worked for a company in Germany as an interpreter, before being offered a job on the Thomson regional training scheme.