Sir Paul Collier is the Anniversary Fellow at the Centre. He is the Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. He is also the Oxford Academic Director of the International Growth Centre, a collaboration between the LSE and Oxford Universities. Paul is also a member of the Natural Resource Governance Institute Board and his work on the management of natural resources includes the book The Plundered Planet: How to Reconcile Prosperity with Nature; he also co-edited a companion book, Plundered Nations?

In The Future of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties, (2017), and Greed is Dead, (2020), co-authored with Professor Sir John Kay, he critiqued the misdirection of public policy and private business that has caused avoidable polarisation and the decline of poor regions like Southern Italy.

He advises local and national governments on practical methods for regional renewal. His book, Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places, (2024, published in Britain, the USA and Germany), draws on global examples of success.