Hannah, Leslie 1947-

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HANNAH, Leslie 1947-

PERSONAL: Born June 15, 1947, in Oldham, Lancashire, England; son of Arthur and Marie (Lancashire) Hannah; married Nuala Barbara Zahedieh, 1984 (divorced, 1998). Education: St. John's and Nuffield College, Oxford, M.A., Ph.D., D.Phil.

ADDRESSES: Office—Ashridge Business School, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire HP4 1NS, England.

CAREER: St. John's College, Oxford University, Oxford, England, junior resident fellow, 1969-73; University of Essex, lecturer in economics, 1973-75; Emmanuel College, Cambridge, fellow and financial tutor, 1976-78; London School of Economics, London, England, business history unit director, 1978-88, professor of business history, 1982-97, pro-director, 1995-97, acting director, 1996-97; NRG London Reinsurance, director, 1986-93; London Econs Ltd., 1991—; City University Business School, dean, 1997-2000; Ashridge Business School, Berkhamsted England, chief executive, 2000—; Institute of Management Consultancy, independent director. Harvard University, visiting professor, 1984-85.

MEMBER: Association of Business Schools (board member).

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Management Strategy and Business Development: An Historical and Comparative Study, Macmillan (London, England), 1976.

The Rise of the Corporate Economy, Methuen (London, England), 1976.

The Rise of the Corporate Economy: The British Experience, foreword by Alfred D. Chandler, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1976.

(With J. A. Kay) Concentration in Modern Industry: Theory, Measurement, and the U.K. Experience, Macmillan (London, England), 1977.

Electricity before Nationalisation: A Study of the Development of the Electricity Supply Industry in Britain to 1948, Macmillan (London, England), 1979.

Engineers, Managers, and Politicians: The First Fifteen Years of Nationalised Electricity Supply in Britain, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1982.

Inventing Retirement: The Development of Occupational Pensions in Britain, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1986.

(Editor) Pension Asset Management: An International Perspective, R. D. Irwin, 1988.

(With Margaret Ackrill) Barclays: The Business of Banking, 1690-1996, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Leslie Hannah is the chief executive of Ashridge Business School and independent director of the Institute of Management Consultancy. His research interests include economics and business history. British Book News contributor David Fanning called Hannah "one of Britain's leading business historians."

In The Rise of the Corporate Economy: The British Experience Hannah provides a history of the development of industrial corporations in the United Kingdom between 1880 and 1973. He discusses why and how there was a change in Great Britain from small businesses to large monopolizing corporations. "Readable and convincing, the fascination of this study owes much to its rare and elegant blend of well-researched historical narrative and effective, yet unobtrusive, economic analysis," noted Peter L. Payne in Business History Review.

In Inventing Retirement: The Development of Occupational Pensions in Britain Hannah discusses the evolvement of occupational pensions in the United Kingdom. He provides a history of how pensions began and how they have changed over the years. Business History Review contributor Steven A. Sass praised the work as "a brilliant piece of work that deserves a wide audience among readers of this journal."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, December, 1977, Donald N. McCloskey, review of The Rise of the Corporate Economy: The British Experience, pp. 1258-1259.

British Book News, August, 1986, David Tanning, review of Inventing Retirement: The Development of Occupational Pensions in Britain, p. 461.

Business History Review, winter, 1977, Peter L. Payne, review of The Rise of the Corporate Economy, pp. 506-507; summer, 1984, Richard B. Du Boff, review of Engineers, Managers, and Politicians: The First Fifteen Years of Nationalised Electricity Supply in Britain, pp. 282-283; summer, 1987, Steven A. Sass, review of Inventing Retirement, p. 351.

Choice, May, 1977, review of The Rise of the Corporate Economy, p. 100; January, 1979, review of Concentration in Modern Industry: Theory, Measurement, and the U.K. Experience, p. 1543.

Economist, July 16, 1977, review of Concentration in Modern Industry, pp. 126-127.

English Historical Review, October, 1980, Barry Supple, review of Electricity before Nationalisation: A Study of the Development of the Electricity Supply Industry in Britain to 1948, pp. 939-941.

History: Reviews of New Books, August, 1979, review of Electricity before Nationalisation, pp. 197-198.

Journal of Economic History, September, 1978, James H. Soltow, review of Concentration in Modern Industry, pp. 776-778.

Journal of Economic Literature, March, 1987, review of Inventing Retirement, p. 244.

Journal of Modern History, December, 1980, S. G. Checkland, review of Electricity before Nationalisation, pp. 692-694.

Journal of Political Economy, December, 1978, Leonard W. Weiss, review of Concentration in Modern Industry, pp. 1162-1164.

Journal of Social History, spring, 1987, W. Andrew Achenbaum, review of Inventing Retirement, pp. 650-651.

Library Journal, February 15, 1977, Ted Samore, review of The Rise of the Corporate Economy, p. 484.

ONLINE

Cambridge University Press Web site,http://us.cambridge.org/ (September 3, 2002).*

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