Rachel Lomax is a British economist and former government official who was the deputy Governor of the Bank of England, the first woman to hold this position, sitting on the Monetary Policy Committee from July 2003 to June 2008. During her time on the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee she very rarely voted to raise interest rates, establishing herself as a moderate. As a result when she did advocate a rise in interest people tended to listen carefully to her advice. She attended Cheltenham Ladies' college and graduated from Girton College, Cambridge with an MA in 1966 and an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics in 1968. Prior to joining the bank Rachel was the Permanent Secretary for three government departments from 1996 to 2002.

At the beginning of her career she worked at HM Treasury which she joined in 1968 and worked on a number of issues including macro economic, monetary and financial matters. She was Principal Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, today Lord Lawson, in the middle of the 1980's and Deputy Chief Economic Adviser in the early 1990's. By 1994 she was Head of the Economic and Domestic Secretariat at the Cabinet Office and during 1995 to 1996 Rachel was a Vice President and Chief of Staff to the President of the World Bank.

She was Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport and between 1999 and 2002 was Permanent Secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions and from 1996 to 1999 was at the Welsh Office where she oversaw the setting up of the National Assembly for Wales. In 2008 she was appointed as non-executive director of HSBC where she is also a member of several audit and risk committees. She will be the third woman on HSBC's Board. Rachel Lomax is a non-executive director of The Scottish American Investment Company, an investment trust and Reinsurance Group of America. She also sits on the Board of the Royal National Theatre and of De Montfort University. She received an honorary degree from the University of Glasgow in 2007.

As a speaker, Rachel's diverse expertise, skills and experience are sure to engage and excite at many types of event. She has forty years of financial experience, and has particular insight into the British economy. Her knowledge and understanding of monetary policy offers a fascinating insider's perspective into the current economic climate. She is in a unique position to provide information and inspiration on economic themes given her experience with the Monetary Policy Committee where she had responsibility within the Bank of Monetary Policy for, amongst other things, monetary assessment and money market operations.

Rachel Lomax presents in English and gives insightful and inspirational talks on the monetary and business worlds. Key topics around which Rachel presents include monetary policy, monetary assessment, money market operations and economic outlook. She would be an invaluable speaker to any organisation in the business world and particularly helpful and inspirational to company CEOs and their senior management trying to adjust to doing business in today's unpredictable economic climate.