For many academic economists and economic policymakers, the work of Professor L. Alan Winters CB needs no introduction. By the time he joined our Department of Economics in 1999, his research had already inspired a generation in his field. According to Professor Sambit Bhattacharyya, Head of Economics, he has been instrumental in “shifting policy discourse in the global south from protectionism to trade openness”.

Winters complemented his 25-year career at Sussex with several influential roles at the heart of UK and international policymaking. As Chief Economist at the UK Government’s Department for International Development and several posts at the World Bank in Washington D.C., his work always embodied his belief that “the policy world and academia need to move together because academics get the argument right”.

In the aftermath of the UK’s 2016 referendum vote to leave the European Union, Winters responded to the urgent gap in government trade policy expertise by founding the UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO). Alongside the more recently created Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy that he co-directs, the UKTPO has established the Business School and the University as an indispensable hub of trade policy expertise recognised by policymakers in the UK and across the world. Professor Michael Gasiorek, who collaborated with Winters in the founding and running of these centres, praised his colleague’s leadership as well as his “tremendous kindness and… trust”.   

Last week, we paid leaving tributes to Professor Winters with a gathering at the Business School including speeches and gifts from departmental colleagues, the Vice-Chancellor of the University Professor Sasha Roseneil, the Dean of the Business School Professor Steven McGuire, and some of Winters’ numerous former PhD students. In one tribute, a former student remarked that he considered himself lucky since “luck is the people who we encounter along our path in life”.