11 Facts About Richard Jolly

Richard Jolly has been named one of the fifty key thinkers globally in developmental economics.

Richard Jolly co-authored the book Adjustment with a human face: protecting the vulnerable and promoting growth.

The son of Arthur Richard Jolly, a chartered accountant, and his wife Flora nee Leaver, a commissioner for the Girl Guides, he attended Brighton College before going up to Magdalene College, Cambridge and graduating with first-class honours in Economics in 1956.

In 1958 Richard Jolly pursued postgraduate studies at Yale University, receiving a PhD in 1962.

In 1959 Richard Jolly was secretary of the British Alpine Hannibal Expedition, which sought to recreate Hannibal's route across the Alps with the aid of an elephant.

Richard Jolly was appointed Research Fellow at the East Africa Institute of Social Research in 1963, advising on manpower to the Government of Zambia, and Research Officer in Applied Economics at Cambridge University.

Richard Jolly served as Special Consultant on North-South issues to the Secretary-General of the OECD in 1978, and from 1978 to 1981 was a member and rapporteur of the UN Committee on Development Planning.

From 1996 to 2000 Richard Jolly became Special Adviser to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and principal coordinator of the widely acclaimed Human Development Report.

Richard Jolly was the senior author of the final volume, UN Ideas that Changed the World and a co-author of five others, three of which were recognized by Choice magazine as outstanding academic books of the year.

Sir Richard Jolly has served as a trustee of OXFAM, Chairman of the UN Association of the United Kingdom and as an Overseas Development Institute Member of Council.

Later formally styled Lady Richard Jolly, she was a noted primatologist until her death on 6 February 2014; they had four children.