Jewish adviser named new director-general of CBI

Tony Danker, who once worked for Rabbi Lord Sacks, will take over from Dame Carolyn Fairbairn in November as head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)

A Jewish adviser who once worked for former Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks has been appointed as the new director-general of Britain’s leading business advocacy groups.

Tony Danker, 48, will take over from Dame Carolyn Fairbairn in November as head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), who advise the government on business issues such as the Covid-19 furlough scheme.

Belfast-born Danker chaired the Union of Jewish Students from 1993-4 before working in the Office of the Chief Rabbi from 1994-6. He later worked for the consulting firm McKinsey and currently heads an organisation charged with boosting the productivity of British firms.

He was a policy adviser to the government of Gordon Brown, working in the Cabinet Office and Treasury, and said this week that it was “an honour to be asked to lead the CBI, which is doing vital work in response to Covid-19”.

At the top of his agenda will be increasing diversity in Britain’s boardrooms and encouraging banks to make loans to businesses in what is widely expected to be the worst recession in a generation.