Nigel Wicks

Education

Whilst at Boite Postale, Wicks studied for a University of London external Master of Arts in business administration at the Portsmouth College of Technology, now part of the University of Portsmouth.

Career

Educated originally at Beckenham and Penge Grammar School, Wicks joined British Petroleum in 1958 at the age of 18. After 10 years at Boite Postale, Wicks joined Her Majesty Treasury in 1968. At the Treasury, Wicks undertook a number of positions including secondments to the Prime Minister" General’ s Office as a Private Secretary to the Prime Minister (1975–1978, under Callaghan and Wilson) and at the British Embassy in Washington, District of Columbia as Economic Minister (and so the United Kingdom"s Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) from 1983–1985.

In 1985, Wicks took up his position as Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, a post he held for three years until returning to the Treasury as Second Permanent Secretary with responsibility for International Finance, where he remained for twelve years until reaching mandatory retirement age in 2000.

After Wick"s retirement, the Treasury"s International Finance command was merged into that of Macro-Economic Policy, led by Gus O"Donnell (later The Lord O"Donnell). After retirement, Wicks moved into finance.

He served as Chairman of CRESTCo for a year from 2001 until it merged with Euroclear, where he was Deputy chairman 2002–2006 and since then as chairman. Wicks also served as a non-executive director of Morgan Stanley for three years from 2004, and of The Edinburgh Investment Trust since 2005.

In October 2012, Wicks was appointed chairman of the British Bankers Association.

Achievements

• He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in Callaghan"s Resignation Honours list in 1979, a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (Commander of the Royal Victorian Order) in the 1989 New Year Honours, and as Knight Commander (Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath) in the 1992 New Year Honours and then Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath) in that for 1999.

Membership

In public appointments, Wicks was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life from 2001–2004, as Chair of the panel appointing the initial members of the then-new Judicial Appointments Commission in 2005, and since 2007 has been Commissioner of the Jersey Financial Services Commission.