Evan Davis born 8 April 1962Evan Davis is a British economist and journalist; he has been the BBC's economics editor since October 2001, replacing Peter Jay. Currently he is on sabbatical from this post and is a presenter on BBC Radio Four's Today programme.
Davis attended Dorking County Grammar School, which in 1976 became The Ashcombe School, Dorking, and later studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St John's College, Oxford from 1981 to 1984, before obtaining an MPA at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. While at Oxford University, Davis edited Cherwell, the student newspaper.
Before joining the BBC as an economics correspondent in 1993, he worked as an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies from 1986 to 1988 and again from 1992 to 1993. Between 1988 and 1992 he worked at the London Business School. He worked as economics editor on BBC Two's Newsnight programme from 1997 to 2001.
While the BBC's economics editor, Davis was responsible for reporting and analysing economic developments on a range of programmes on BBC radio and television, particularly the Ten O'Clock News. He also had a role in shaping the extensive BBC coverage of economics across all the corporation's outputs, including online.
Davis also writes a blog for the BBC website entitled Evanomics in which he 'attempts to understand the real world, using the tool kit of economics'. Subjects he discussed included road pricing, care for the elderly, Gordon Brown's Budget and how to choose wine.
Davis has won several awards including the Work Foundation's Broadcast Journalist of the Year award in 1998, 2001 and 2003, and the Harold Wincott Business Broadcaster of the Year award in 2002. He has made several appearances on the quizcom, Have I Got News For You, and presents Dragons' Den on BBC 2.
In 2005, he was one of a handful of BBC personalities who broke strike picket lines. BBC staff were striking over announced job cuts.
In summer 2007, Davis was a guest presenter on the Today Programme for two weeks. In April 2008 he stood down as BBC Economics Editor for 12 months and joined the Today Programme as a full-time presenter, replacing Carolyn Quinn
Openly gay, Davis lives with Guillaume Baltz, a French landscape architect. He is noted for conducting congenial interviews with contestants both successful and unsuccessful following their intense session with the dragons on Dragons' Den. Because of this and his round almost cartoon-like features he was described by Charlie Brooker as 'the world's biggest Teddy Bear'.