Fullerton announces departure from Bank of England

THE Bank of England’s agent in Yorkshire, Paul Fullerton, has announced his retirement.

Mr Fullerton, who has spent the last decade with the Bank, is to step down early next year and will be replaced by Juliette Healey.

After 25 years working for Yorkshire Bank, Newcastle-born Mr Fullerton went into business and then joined the Bank of England in 2001 as the deputy agent for Yorkshire and the Humber.

He stepped up to become agent five years later when Mark Pratt retired and has built up a strong network of contacts across the region’s business community.

He said he had decided to retire when he reaches 60 in January 2012. “This is not an easy decision but the analogy I would use is when you are at a really enjoyable party you might leave at midnight with a great feeling.

“But sometimes if you wait till 2am you regret it! Hopefully the former choice leaves me with enough energy for something else though I am not sure what.”

Mr Fullerton, who lives in Leeds, said that although he has no firm plans for his time post-retirement from the Bank, he hopes to be able to take up some non-executive roles.

His successor Ms Healey joined the Bank in 1986 and is currently a senior manager in its Press and Parliamentary Affairs department. She has held a variety of roles in the Bank including head of statistics and has also had secondments to the Treasury and the International Monetary Fund.

She will join the Bank’s Yorkshire office in November.

Mr Fullerton, a keen golfer and Newcastle United fan, said he had built contacts with almost 1,000 businesses during his time with the Bank and was grateful for their support and information on the Yorkshire economy “in what has been an almost unprecedented period of economic and financial history”.

He added: “It has been a privilege to act as a conduit to the Monetary Policy Committee feeding back business intelligence to help inform policy decisions. I am hoping by the turn of the year things will be a little less frantic for Juliette!”

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