An award winning journalist is to give a lecture to staff, students and guests at the University of Wolverhampton – the first in his new post.

BBC Newsnight’s economics editor, Paul Mason, was awarded the honour of Visiting Professor of Economics by the University of Wolverhampton Business School in April last year.

Now he is to give his inaugural lecture on the theme of the financial crisis on Thursday, 28 February 2013.

The lecture in the Millennium  City Building at the Wolverhampton City Campus is titled The disruptive wave: the financial crisis as a 50 year turning point for capitalism?

Dr Anthea Gregory, Dean of the University of Wolverhampton Business School, said: “It’s fantastic for someone as well known and knowledgeable on world economics as Paul to be one of our visiting professors.

“He has worked upon some of the biggest economics stories over the last few years and has great experience which he will be able to share with our students.

“They can only benefit from his insights into the global economy and the Business School is very much looking forward to his inaugural lecture.”

Paul covered the corporate scandals of Enron.

Born in Leigh, Lancashire in 1960, he graduated from the University of Sheffield in 1981 with a joint degree in Music and Politics. Following postgraduate research at Sheffield and teacher training in London, he taught at Loughborough University.

At the age of 30 he switched careers to become a journalist, working in specialist business magazines for Reed Elsevier. He joined Newsnight in 2011 and has led the programme’s coverage of business, technology and economics ever since.

His ground-breaking reports on the rise of China as an economic power won him the Wincott Award in 2003. Paul was one of the BBC’s first bloggers and has twice been nominated for the Orwell Prize.

He covered the collapse of Lehman Brothers live from outside its New York HQ and since then reported on the social and economic impact of the global meltdown across the world.

He is the author of two books: Live Working or Die Fighting, How the working class went global; and Meltdown: The end of the age of greed.

The event starts at 5.30pm with light refreshments and networking, with the lecture due to start at 6.30pm.

The event is free but booking is essential as places are limited. Contact Steve Greenfield on: 01902 321 772 or email: [email protected] to book.

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