Profile

Phillip Charles Francis Crowson is an Honorary Professor, and a part-time Professorial Research Fellow at the Centre.

Born in 1939 in Folkestone, Kent, Phillip was educated at Reed's School, Cobham, Surrey, and at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, graduating with first class honours in economics. He is married with three children. He first worked as an economist in the UK chemicals industry, for Distillers (1961-67), for BP Chemicals (1967-68), and for Albright and Wilson(1968-71). ln l964 he was seconded to the National Economic Development Office (NEDO). He joined the Economics Department of The RTZ Corporation in July 1971, and became the company's Chief Economist in May 1981. He retired from Rio Into Limited (then known as RTZ-CRA) at the beginning of 1997. Until his retirement he was a director of several Rio Tinto subsidiaries and he took an active role in many Industry organisations, including the European Copper Institute (Chairman), and the Mining Association of the United Kingdom (President). Professor Crowson served as an Invited Director of the London Metal Exchange for a maximum possible twelve year term until May 2000. He edits the biennial publication "Minerals Handbook", the tenth edition of which was published in 2001. He is the author of "Inside Mining. The Economics of the Supply and Demand of Minerals and Metals", published by Mining Journal Books in November 1998, and “Astride Mining. Issues and Policies for the Mineral Industries”, published by Mining Journal Books in October 2003. He has written many published papers and articles on aspects of the mineral industries, including contributed chapters to several books, and he also lectures frequently. He sits on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Natural Resources Forum and Raw Materials Report.