John Plender is a British writer and journalist based at the Financial Times in London. After Oxford University, he joined Deloitte, Plender, Griffiths & Co in 1967, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1970. He then moved into journalism and became financial editor of The Economist in 1974, where he remained until joining the UK Foreign Office policy planning staff in 1980. On leaving the Foreign Office, he became a senior editorial writer and columnist at the Financial Times, a role he combined for a time with broadcasting for BBC Television and Channel Four.

A past chairman of Pensions and Investment Research Consultants (PIRC), the UK shareholder activist, John Plender served on the UK government’s Company Law Review steering group which provided the basis for the Companies Act 2006. He joined the board of Quintain PLC as a non-executive director in 2002 and chaired the company from 2007 to 2009. John is a director of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, a trustee of the £4bn Pearson Pension Fund and a member of the World Bank/OECD Private Sector Advisory Group on corporate governance. 

His latest book is Capitalism: Money, Morals and Markets, Biteback Publishing (2015). Awards include the Wincott Foundation senior prize for excellence in financial journalism.