Richard Lambert was editor of the Financial Times until 2001. From June 2003 he was one of the nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, which sets the interest rate for sterling, the currency of the United Kingdom. In March 2006 he was appointed Director-General Designate of the Confederation of British Industry and he assumed the role of Director General of the CBI in July 2006.

After studying at Oxford, Richard joined the Financial Times in 1966, as trainee companies reporter and joined the Lex investment column, becoming its editor in 1976. Three years later he was appointed financial editor. In 1982 he became New York bureau chief to broaden his international experience. After a year he returned to the UK as deputy editor and in 1991 he took over the editorship. In 1997 he moved back to New York for a year to launch a US version of the FT, while remaining in overall charge of the UK version too.