Hamish McRae is one of Europe's leading futurists and a London based economic journalist. He is the author of the acclaimed work on the future "The World in 2020: Power, Culture and Prosperity" first published in 1994 and translated into more than a dozen languages..

He is the principal economic commentator of "The Independent" and "The Independent on Sunday". He is also the author of the acclaimed work on the future "The World in 2020: Power, Culture and Prosperity" first published in 1994 and translated into more than a dozen languages, including Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Since the publication of "The World in 2020" he has been in demand world-wide as a speaker on the future.

His other books include "Capital City - London as a Financial Centre", co-authored with Frances Cairncross, and "Wake-up Japan", co-authored with Tadashi Nakamae. Awards include Financial Journalist of the Year in 1979, a special merit award in the first Amex Bank essay awards in 1987, 1996 Columnist of the Year in the Periodical Publisher's Awards and in 2005 the David Watt Prize for outstanding political journalism. He is a visiting professor at the School of Management at Lancaster University and a council member of the Royal Economic Society.

Hamish McRae was named Business and Finance Journalist of the Year 2006 at the British Press Awards.

His current areas of work include the shift of power to the economies of Asia and the impact of the new technologies on the world economy. He is now working on a new book on global best practice.

He was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh and has an MA in Economics and Political Science from Trinity College, Dublin. He was deputy editor of "The Banker" and editor of "Euromoney" before becoming financial editor of "The Guardian" in 1975. In 1989 he moved to "The Independent" where he is now associate editor.

"What is happening to the world economy - and what it means for global business"