Terence James "Jim" O'Neill, retiring chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, is a British
economist best known for coining BRIC, the acronym that stands for Brazil, Russia, India,
and China—the four rapidly developing countries that have come to symbolise the shift in global
economic power away from the developed G7 economies. As of January 2014, he is an Honorary Professor
of Economics at the University of Manchester.
Career After earning his Ph.D. in 1982 from the
University of Surrey with a thesis titled An empirical investigation into the OPEC surplus
and its disposal under the supervision of David Hawdon, Jim O'Neill began his career
in finance working at Bank of America in 1982. From 1988 to 1991, he was in charge of the
fixed income research group at Swiss Bank Corporation, and he served as SBC's chief
of global research. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1997 and he was appointed as the head
of global economics research in 2001, which is also when he published the seminal BRIC
paper. No candidate has ever been named to replace him as Chief Economist.
In 2010, he was named Chairman of Goldman Sachs's Division of Asset Management, a newly
created position in which O'Neill manages over $800 billion in assets by "leverag[ing]"
his "global perspective on world markets". He continues to publish research regarding
the global economy, in addition to coming up with innovative investment strategies for
clients. His new appointment was regarded as a symbol of Goldman's "efforts to reposition
itself for Wall Street's post-crisis era", one in which Goldman Sachs is "bullish" about
the fact that emerging markets are "the future". In 2011, he was included in the 50 Most Influential
ranking of Bloomberg Markets magazine. In February 2013, the firm announced O'Neill's
impending retirement, which took place two months later, in April 2013. He is a currently
on the International Advisory Board of the Centre for Rising Powers at the University
of Cambridge. O'Neill sits on the QFINANCE Strategic Advisory Board. He is also a member
of the board of Bruegel, the European think tank for international economics. O'Neill
is chairman of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership Advisory Board, which
advises on the growth of the Greater Manchester economy. On 2 July 2014 he was appointed by
UK Prime Minister David Cameron to head an international commission to investigate global
antimicrobial resistance. Economic views
O'Neill claims not to commit to a specific financial ideology; instead, he is known for
his "pragmatic, long-term" vision of currency markets. He improves upon traditional models
of data analysis by incorporating elements that ultimately make them more accurate.
BRICs O'Neill coined the term "BRIC" in 2001 in
"The World Needs Better Economic BRICs", a paper written for Goldman Sachs's "Global
Economic Paper" series. Foreign exchange markets
O'Neill has been called a "currency guru"; he has been hailed as "the top foreign-exchange
economist anywhere in the world in the past decade". For example, in 2004 he accurately
predicted that the euro would rise from $1.25 to $1.30 a year later; he was also right about
the yen's rise in the mid-1990s. He was previously head of global economic research and commodities
and strategy research at Goldman Sachs. MIKT
O'Neill coined the term MIKT for the countries of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, and Turkey.
MINTs He has also coined the term MINT—Mexico,
Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey—in order to differentiate among the variety of emerging
economies. He plans to group this quartet as "growth markets" within the overall BRIC
nations. Personal life
O'Neill grew up in Gatley and attended Burnage Comprehensive and Sheffield University, where
he studied economics. He is a lifelong fan of Manchester United F.C. and served as a
non-executive director from 2004 to 2005, before the club was returned to private ownership.
On 2 March 2010, the Red Knights, a group of wealthy Manchester United fans believed
to include O'Neill, confirmed interest in a possible takeover of the club.
See also BRIC
Next Eleven Emerging and growth-leading economies
Emerging markets Goldman Sachs
MINT Centre for Rising Powers, University of Cambridge
References