Jim O'Neill is Head of Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research for Goldman Sachs which he became in 2008. In this role, Jim manages the firm’s economics, strategy and commodity research and the output of these teams around the world. Jim received his Ph.D. in 1982 from the University of Surrey after graduating in Economics from Sheffield University in 1978. After a brief spell with Bank of America and International Treasury Management, a division of Marine Midland Bank, in 1988 Jim joined Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC). In 1991, he became Head of Research, globally, for SBC. Jim joined Goldman Sachs in October 1995 as a Partner, Co-Head of Global Economics Research and Chief Currency Economist, becoming Head of Global Economics Research in 2001.Jim is the creator of the acronym BRICs and, together with his colleagues, he has published much research about BRICs, which has become synonymous with the emergence of Brazil, Russia, India and China as the growth opportunities of the future. Jim is a member of the board of the Royal Economic Society in the UK, of the European think-tank Bruegel, and Itinera, a Belgium think-tank. He is a member of the UK-India Round Table, and the UKIBC. Jim is one of the founding trustees, as well as currently Chairman, of the London-based charity SHINE. He sits on the board of a number of other charities, primarily specialising in education. In 2009, Jim received an honorary doctorate from the Institute of Education, University of London, for his educational philanthropy. He also served as a Non-Executive Director of Manchester United before it returned to private ownership in 2005.