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Laurence Cockcroft

Laurence Cockcroft

Development economist and co-founder of Transparency International

Laurence Cockcroft has been actively involved in the fight against corruption since 1991, when the proposal to develop what became Transparency International (TI) was first discussed. His work in the previous twenty five years had mainly focused on rural development in Africa where he could see that corruption had become a major threat to progress.

He joined the first international board of Transparency International in 1993 and at the same time was a key player in establishing Transparency International in the UK, and was Chairman of TI-UK from 2000-8 (and remains an adviser to the organisation). His work with Transparency International has included initiating its programme on the ‘Business Principles for Countering Corruption’ – widely adopted as a basis for corporate codes of conduct ; launching work to combat corruption in the defence sector (now Transparency International’s Defence and Security Programme) ; and promoting the UK Bribery Act which came active in 2011 and has become the basis for a series of cases in transnational corruption brought by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.

His book – ‘Global Corruption : Money, Power and Ethics’ - an analysis of the factors driving corruption on a global basis was published in 2012. His latest book on the subject, 'Unmasked: Corruption in the West', written with co-author Anne Christine Wegener, was published in November 2016.