Brian Pearce is IATA’s Chief Economist. An economist with over 20 years of international experience in several industries, he was formerly head of global economic research at UBS Warburg and Chief Economist at Ernst & Young.
His role is to analyse the economic and policy landscape facing the airline industry, to provide the data and arguments that effectively support IATA’s CEO and policy work. This has taken his role beyond the traditional analysis of traffic forecasts to forecasting all the factors affecting the future profitability of the industry, and providing the economic analysis to help take costs out of the airline business and address the structural issues that disadvantage the industry.
Prior to joining IATA Brian Pearce was involved in the UK Air Transport White Paper and in the discussion and design of policies to influence aviation’s impact on the environment. He also advised on the financial sector’s role in promoting good corporate governance and responsibility, and directed the initiative launched by the UK Prime Minister at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Before that he was head of Global Economic Research at the investment bank, SBC Warburg (now UBS), in Tokyo and then London. During this time he published extensively on international financial and economic issues, and advised private and public sector clients in over 20 countries.
As Chief Economist at Ernst & Young’s economic forecasting consultancy, the ITEM Club, he worked with the UK Treasury’s and other econometric models to analyse public policy and forecast global economic prospects. He was frequently called on by television, radio and the press to comment on Government economic policy and wrote a series of articles for the UK’s Sunday Times and Japan’s Nikkei Business.