Cento Veljanovski
Dr Cento Gavril Veljanovski (born 19 February 1953) is a neoliberal economist and business consultant closley affiliated to the seminal free market think-tank the Institute of Economic Affairs and the European Policy Forum. He has authored a number of reports arguing for the privitisation and deregulation of the British media, as well as public utilities like gas and telecommunications.
Biography
Veljanovski was born on 19 February 1953, the son of Gavril Veljanovski and Margaret née Wagenaar. He studied a degree and a masters in economics at Monash University and then a PhD at Oxford. [1] He was a junior resident fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford from 1978 to 1984 during which time he was also a visiting professor at the Univiversity of Toronto (1980-1981). In 1984 he joined University College London (UCL) as a lecturer. [2] He left UCL in 1987 to joined the neoliberal think-tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, where he was research and editorial director until 1991. [3]
In 1990 it was reported in the Guardian and The Times that Veljanovski was being employed as a consultant to the BBC. [4]
In 1991 Veljanovski authored a report called 'The Media in Britain Today' published by Rupert Murdoch's News International. The report, which also included a foreword by Alan Peacock, 'where there are 50 or more television channels, many with small audiences, the fact that a newspaper proprietor has a controlling interest in several satellite channels does not pose a real threat to diversity or to competition'. [5]
Financial consultant
In the 1990s Veljanovski moved into the business world. In 1990 he was reported to be a director of the Putnam, Hayes and Bartlett consultancy. [6] That year he also joined the economic consultancy firm Lexecon in 1990. According to his biography on Debrett's People of Today, he remained with the Institute of Economic Affairs for a year whilst serving as a director of Lexecon. He left Lexecon in 1994. By which time he had joined the board of the cable television programmer Flextech. He was a director of Flextech from 1993 to 1995. [7]
Flextech started life as an oil services company. It first moved into media in 1989 when it purchased a stake in the cable television broadcaster The Children's Channel during a restructuring of the company. Another shareholder in The Children's Channel was the US cable TV company TeleCommunications Inc, which in December 1993 bought a 60 per cent stake in Flextech and put the company in control of UK cable channels. [8] Flextech subsequently entered into a 50 per cent joint venture with BBC Worldwide called UKTV. It was subsequently merged with Telewest and then Virgin Media.
In 1996 Veljanovski founded the 'competition consultancy' Case Associates. That year Veljanovski authored a report for the European Media Forum arguing that Channel 4 should be privitised. According to the Daily Mail, Veljanovski argued in the report that, 'full privatisation of Channel 4 would bring in $3billion, while a sell-off with the stipulation that it must keep its remit to cater for minority interests would still raise $2billion. [9]
Affiliations
Notes
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today (Debrett's Peerage Ltd, January 2009) [Accessed via KnowUK on 15 October 2009]
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today, Dr Cento Veljanovski [Accessed 15 October 2009]
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today, Dr Cento Veljanovski [Accessed 15 October 2009]
- ↑ Georgina Henry, 'BBC defends job for Mandelson', Guardian, 3 October 1990; Melinda Wittstock, 'BBC defends Labour choice', The Times, 3 October 1990
- ↑ cited in Richard Evans, 'Cross-ownership of media 'no threat to competition', The Times, 18 January 1990
- ↑ 'Cable forecasts "should be lower"', New Media Markets, 8 November 1990
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today, Dr Cento Veljanovski [Accessed 15 October 2009]
- ↑ Jeff Ferry, 'Flextech's profitless prosperity', Director, August 1994; p.28
- ↑ Sean Poulter, 'Clarke can tune in to £3bn bonus', Daily Mail, 21 November 1996; p.29
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today (Debrett's Peerage Ltd, January 2009) [Accessed via KnowUK on 15 October 2009]
