Anton Muscatelli

Sir Vito Antonio Muscatelli (born 1 January 1962) is the Principal of the University of Glasgow and one of the United Kingdom's top economists.

Anton Muscatelli was born on 1 January 1962 in Bari, Italy to Ambrogio and Rosellina Muscatelli.

He lived in Mola di Bari in his early years.

His father, who was head of a shipping company, relocated the family to Glasgow from the Netherlands.

Anton was educated at The High School of Glasgow and the University of Glasgow, where he graduated M.A. (Hons) in Political Economy (1984) and took a PhD in Economics (1989).

He was a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Professor at the University of Glasgow from 1984 to 1994, and Daniel Jack Professor of Political Economy from 1994 until 2007.

Muscatelli has been a consultant to the World Bank and the European Commission, and was a member of the Panel of Economic Advisers of the Secretary of State for Scotland from 1998 to 2000.

He was Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, 2000 to 2004, and Vice-Principal (Strategy, Budgeting and Advancement) from 2004 until 2007.

He was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2001, and of the CESifo Economics Research Institute in Munich in 1999.

Anton Muscatelli was appointed principal of Heriot-Watt University on 10 October 2006, with effect from 1 February 2007.

He replaced John Archer, who retired.

His tenure as principal saw expansion in the University and rises in league tables.

From 2007-10, he was an adviser to the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee on monetary policy, and in 2008 he was appointed to chair an independent expert group for the Calman Commission on Devolution, set up by the Scottish Parliament and UK Government and led by the chancellor of the University of Glasgow, Sir Kenneth Calman.

This included experts from the UK, Europe, and North America.

The Muscatelli expert group set out a number of principles which funding of devolved government in Scotland should follow.

He chaired the Research and Commercialisation Committee of Universities Scotland in 2007–08 and from 2008 to 2010 was convener of Universities Scotland and vice-president of Universities UK.

He was described by The Herald in 2008 as "one of the leading lights in Scottish higher education".

Upon the announcement that he would be moving to Glasgow, the chairman of the Court of Heriot-Watt, Lord Penrose, said: "Professor Muscatelli has been an excellent principal and vice-chancellor for Heriot-Watt University. During his time here, he has led the university to an ambitious strategy which will be our foundation for the future."

In 2009 he was appointed Knight Commander (Commendatore) of the Republic of Italy for services to economics and higher education.

Muscatelli was succeeded as principal of Heriot-Watt on 1 September 2009 by Steve Chapman, formerly a vice-principal at the University of Edinburgh.

These were adopted by the Calman Commission and were embedded into the fiscal devolution provisions in the Scotland Act (2012).

Between 2012-13 he co-chaired a review with Richard Lambert which led to the establishment of the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB).

In 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (Ll.D) from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Between 2012 and 2018 he was a member of the board of the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), which provides funding and oversight of all of Scotland's colleges and universities.

From 2014-18 he was Honorary President of the David Hume Institute, succeeding Lord David Steel.

He has held visiting appointments in many universities, including, in 2014, guest professor of Nankai University, Tianjin, China.

Between 2015-2021 he was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers of the First Minister of Scotland.

He was a Director of NCUB until 2015.

In 2015-16 he was a member of the Review of the UK Research Excellence Framework chaired by Nicholas Stern.

Following the Smith Commission reforms to fiscal devolution which led to the Scotland Act (2016), there was considerable debate and controversy around the adjustment to the block grant to Scotland from the UK exchequer.

Muscatelli argued for the need to compromise between the Scottish and UK Government positions on how block grant adjustment should be formulated.

A deal between the UK and Scottish Governments was announced on 23 February 2016.

In June 2016, following the vote in the UK EU Referendum, he was appointed by the First Minister of Scotland to chair the Standing Council on Europe, an advisory group to advise ministers on how best to protect Scotland's relationship with the EU, which he chaired until 2021.

During the period as Chair of the First Minister's Standing Council on Europe, which was created to advise Scottish Government on Brexit he argued strongly that the UK should seek to maintain a strong relationship with Europe, including maintaining membership of the Single Market through EFTA/EEA membership.

Muscatelli was chair of the Russell Group from 2017 to 2020.

He was knighted in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to economics and higher education.

In October 2018 at a Summit hosted by Glasgow City Council he warned about the economic damage of Brexit and called the UK's exit from the EU as “the most unhinged example of national self-sabotage in living memory.” In 2017 he outlined the potential impact on the UK from Brexit in a Policy Scotland Lecture.

He is a member of the Productivity Commission which is the policy arm of The Productivity Institute, which was established in 2021 by the Economic and Social Research Council in Manchester, and regularly meets to discuss ongoing policy questions regarding productivity throughout the UK.

In 2019 he was commissioned by the Scottish Government to write a report on Scotland's Research and Innovation Landscape, and the Muscatelli Report was published in November 2019.

In 2022 he was appointed by the UK Government's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to be a member of the scoping group as part of the Review of the UK Research, Development and Innovation system led by Paul Nurse.