Vicky Pryce

Vasiliki "Vicky" Pryce (née Kourmouzi (Greek: Βασιλική Κουρμούζη); born July 1952)[1][2] is a Greek-born British economist, and former Joint Head of the United Kingdom's Government Economic Service.[3] On 7 March 2013, Pryce and her former husband, Chris Huhne, were convicted of perverting the course of justice and sentenced to eight months in prison. After Huhne pleaded guilty, they both served nine weeks in prison.[4][5]

Vicky Pryce
Pryce at a Policy Exchange conference, September 2014
Born
Vasiliki Kourmouzi

July 1952 (age 68)
Athens, Kingdom of Greece
OccupationEconomist
Spouse(s)
Gareth Pryce
​
​
(m. 1972; div. 1981)​

​
​
(m. 1984; div. 2011)​
Children5
Criminal chargePerverting the course of justice

Early life

Pryce was born in Athens, but moved to London at the age of 17.[6] She studied at the LSE, gaining a BSc in Economics and an MSc in Monetary Economics.[7][8]

Career

After university she had, according to Ned Temko, a "glittering career"[9] as an economist and then chief economist at Williams & Glyn's Bank (now part of the Royal Bank of Scotland) from 1973 to 1983; as corporate economist for Exxon Europe from 1983 to 1986;[10] and as chief economist at Peat Marwick McLintock and KPMG from 1986 to 2001. When having a child, she took six weeks off for each one. She left KPMG at Blackfriars in late 2001, and worked for the London Economics consultancy. As of April 2015, she is on the advisory board of OMFIF where she is regularly involved in meetings regarding the financial and monetary system.[11]

Department of Trade and Industry

Pryce joined the Department for Trade and Industry in August 2002 as Chief Economic Adviser, the first woman to be appointed to the post, for which the salary was about £110,000.[10] She was also Chairwoman of the GoodCorporation, an organisation promoting ethical business practices.

Pryce was Deputy Head of the UK Government Economic Service from 2004 to 2007, and Joint Head from 2007 to 2010. She was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2009 Birthday Honours but this was cancelled and annulled on 30 July 2013 following her release from prison.[12][13][14]

In April 2010, it was announced that she would be leaving the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills where she was Director General, Economics, and Joint Head of the Government Economic Service, to become senior managing director at the finance consultancy firm FTI Consulting.[3][10][15]

Academia

She has been a visiting professor at City University's Cass Business School from 2002 to 2006 and from 2008 to 2011, and at Imperial College Business School since 2010; a visiting Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, since 2008; a Fellow of the Society of Business Economists since 2005, and has sat on the Council of the University of Kent since 2005 and the council of the Royal Society for the Arts from 2008 to 2009.[3] She was a Member of the Council of the Royal Economic Society (REconS) from 2002 to 2007.

In 2010 she became the first female Master of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants.[16]

Greekonomics

In October 2012, Biteback Publishing brought out her book Greekonomics, a discussion of the crises in the eurozone, with the focus on the country of her birth. Intended for a broad, not merely an academic, readership, the book discusses what Greek exit from the eurozone might mean.[17]

In early July 2013 Vicky Pryce appeared as an expert witness before the House of Lords cross-party subcommittee on economic and financial affairs, saying she saw no quick end to the eurozone crisis since structural reform would take a long time. Pryce favoured fiscal policy that included a stimulus package and wanted the European Central Bank to buy bonds.[18]

Conviction
Main article: R v Huhne

Pryce was interviewed twice by Essex Police in 2011 over allegations that, in 2003, she had accepted driving licence penalty points actually incurred by her then husband, Chris Huhne (then an MEP). In 2012 it was announced that both would be charged with perverting the course of justice.[19] Pryce entered a plea of not guilty, advancing a defence of marital coercion at trial. In March 2013, she was convicted of perverting the course of justice and was sentenced to eight months in prison, the same as Huhne.[20][21]

Pryce and Huhne left prison on 13 May 2013, subject to electronic tagging. Pryce published a book based on her experience at HM Prison East Sutton Park in October 2013. The book, Prisonomics: Behind Bars in Britain's Failing Prisons, analyzes the economic and human costs of imprisoning women.[18][22][23] Royalties will be donated to Working Chance, a charity (of which she is a patron) helping former women prisoners find work.[24][25][26]

Personal life

In 1972 she married Gareth Pryce, an LSE post-graduate student, whom she divorced in 1981, having had two daughters with him.[9] In 1984, she married Chris Huhne, who later became an MEP and then the Liberal Democrat MP for Eastleigh and Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. They had three children.[27] They divorced in January 2011.[28][29]

Government offices
Preceded by
Sir Nicholas Stern		 Head of the Government Economic Service
with Dave Ramsden
2007-2010[10]		 Succeeded by
Dave Ramsden

References
  1. "Vicky PRYCE". Companies House. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  2. Rayner, Gordon; Prince, Rosa (16 May 2011). "Vicky Pryce: the woman behind Chris Huhne's downfall". The Daily Telegraph.
  3. "About BIS, Management Board". Vicky Pryce biography. Department for Business Innovation and Skills. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
  4. Mason, Rowena (14 October 2013). "Vicky Pryce says she has no regrets about being jailed over speeding points". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  5. "A 'multitude of ideas' from economist turned penal reformer - Elliot Tyler". Elliot Tyler. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  6. Durrant, Sabine (1 October 2011). "Vicky Pryce: 'I thought we were a unit'". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
  7. "LSE congratulates alumni named in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours". London School of Economics. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
  8. "Vicky Pryce Policy Fellow". Retrieved 31 July 2013.
  9. Temko, Ned (12 February 2006). "The woman who backs Chris Huhne". The Observer. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
  10. "Vicky Pryce CB". Press Release. Department for Business Innovation and Skills. 1 April 2010. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
  11. "About Vicky Pryce". OMFIF. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  12. "No. 59090". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 June 2009. p. 2.
  13. "No. 60583". The London Gazette. 30 July 2013. p. 14994.
  14. "Vicky Pryce stripped of Queen's honour". Sky News. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  15. "Press release: Vicky Pryce to Join FTI Consulting as Senior Managing Director". London: FTI Consulting. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  16. "The Worshipful Company of Management Consultants". Wcomc.org. Archived from the original on 2012-02-28. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  17. "Vicky Pryce website". Vicky Pryce. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015.
  18. Syal, Rajeev (2 July 2013). "Vicky Pryce returns to public eye with House of Lords committee appearance". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  19. "Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce in second police interviews". BBC News. 22 July 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  20. "Vicky Pryce guilty over Chris Huhne speeding points". BBC News. 7 March 2013. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  21. "Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce jailed for eight months". BBC News. 11 March 2013. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
  22. Grice, Andrew (13 May 2013). "Nine weeks is a long time in politics: Vicky Pryce and Chris Huhne released from prison but what does the future hold for them?". The Independent.
  23. Aitken, Jonathan (28 October 2013). "Prisonomics by Vicky Pryce – review". The Observer. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  24. Pryce, Vicky (14 October 2013). Prisonomics: Behind bars in Britain's failing prisons. Biteback Publishing. ISBN 978-1849546225.
  25. Charity Commission. Working Chance Ltd, registered charity no. 1131802.
  26. "Elliot Tyler InsideTime interview with Vicky Pryce". InsideTime. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  27. "Profile: Chris Huhne". BBC News. 2 March 2006. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
  28. "Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne splits from wife Vicky Pryce". Southern Daily Echo. Southampton. 19 June 2010. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  29. "Sunday Times drops Chris Huhne emails legal challenge". BBC News. 20 January 2012.
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