Christopher Foster

Sir Christopher David Foster (30 October 1930 – 18 February 2022) was a British academic at the University of Oxford and MIT, a professor of economics at the London School of Economics, a consultant at Coopers & Lybrand and PricewaterhouseCoopers, and a temporary civil servant.

Life and career Christopher David Foster was born in Paddington, London on 30 October 1930. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood and King's College, Cambridge, where he read History and Economics. Afterwards, he spent a year as a Harkness fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, before embarking on a career as an economics don at the University of Manchester and Jesus College, Oxford, where he led a team studying urban transport problems at the Oxford Institute of Economics and Statistics. In 1970 he moved to the LSE, eventually rising to become Professor of Urban Studies and Economics.

In 1966 he took leave from his academic career to take up the role of Director-General of Economic Planning at the Ministry of Transport, serving as a special adviser to Cabinet minister Barbara Castle. He was also close to several other leading Labour politicians, working alongside the likes of Anthony Crosland, Richard Marsh, and Peter Shore.

He was created a Knight Bachelor in the 1986 Birthday Honours.

Foster died at home in Kensington, London, on 18 February 2022, at the age of 91.