User:JML123/John Mills Economist and Entrepreneur

John Mills - Economist and Entrepreneur ...

John Angus Donald Mills (born 1938) is an entrepreneur, economist and politician. He is currently Chairman and majority shareholder of John Mills Limited (JML). He has written or collabarated with others books on seven books on economic subjects. Mills was also a Member of Camden Council from 1971 to 1985 and then from 1990 to 2006.

Early and personal life Born in London, John Mills was educated at Trinity College, Glenalmond, and then at Merton College Oxford, where he read Politics, Philosophy and Economics. Before attending university he did National Service in the Navy, where he was commissioned as a trainee pilot and then as a Communications Officer., when his flying training course was axed in a defence cut. In 1962 he married Barbara Mills, who died in 2011, and they had four children. After a successful career at the bar, Barbara Mills QC became Director of the Serious Fraud Office and then Director of Public Prosecutions, as a result of which she became a Dame of the British Empire. She went on to occupy other high profile Civil Service positions. John Mills is the brother of David Mills who is married to Tessa Jowell MP.

Career John Mills worked for Unilever for six months after leaving university. Between 1962 and 1985 he ran companies in the UK based primarily in manufacturing. His present company, John Mills Limited (JML), specialises in using film based audio/visual methods to sell high volume consumer products which require promotion at the point of sale.

As an economist, John Mills has written the following books: Growth and Welfare: A New Policy for Britain (Martin Robertson and Barnes and Noble 1972), Monetarism or Prosperity? (with Bryan Gould and Shaun Stewart: Macmillan 1982), Tackling Britain’s False Economy (Macmillan 1997) Europe’s Economic Dilemma (Macmillan 1998), America's Soluble Problems (Macmillan, 1999), Managing the World Economy (Macmillan/Palgrave 2000), A Critical History of Economics (Macmillan/Palgrave 2002 and Beijing Commercial Press 2006), and a large number of pamphlets, tracts, reviews  and articles. A book on the Exchange Rate is scheduled for publication by Palgrave/Macmillan in September 2012. These books have been critical of the economic policies pursued by western governments which Mills claims have led to slow growth and high unemployment as a result of inappropriate exchange rate and monetary policies, heavily favouring finance over manufacturing.

As a politician, John Mills was elected as a Labour Member of Camden Council, a large London borough, for most of the time between 1971 to 2006. In addition to playing a major role in housing policy, he was responsible for much of this time for the £800m budget of the Council, which was recently voted Council of the Year. At national level, he was local government Chair or Opposition Leader for nine years on the Housing Committees of both the Association of Metropolitan Authorities and the London Boroughs Association. Between 1985 and 1987, he was Deputy Chairman of the London Docklands Development Corporation. He stood for Parliament twice in 1974 and for the European Parliament in 1979. He has been Secretary of the Labour Euro-Safeguards Campaign since 1975 and the Labour Economic Policy Group since 1985. He has been Committee member of the Economic Research Council since 1997 and is now Vice-Chairman. He is Chair of The People’s Pledge campaign for a referendum on Britain’s EU membership.