Courtney Alexander Smith

I am an Economist, Author, and Consultant currently living in the United Kingdom. I am British (moved to the UK from Jamaica in 1984). I studied at the University of West Indies (B.A., M.Sc.), University of Manchester (M.A.), University of Hull (Ph.D), Tromsø University (Postgraduate Diploma in Health Economics), Nottingham Trent University (Postgraduate Diploma in Law).

At Hull, I wrote my Ph.D. Thesis - The Development Strategy of the People’s Revolution Government: the Political Economy of Economic Transformation in Grenada, 1979-1983 (Hull University, 1988).

I am the First Lord Wilberforce Scholar.

I have spent most of my career in Her Majesty’s Civil Service, working as an Economic Adviser and a project assurance specialist. From 1988 to 2012, I advised on the planning and delivery of some of the Government’s most complex, costly and high-risk programmes and projects. These included flagship programmes such as Cross Rail, Biometric Resident Permits, Points-based Immigration System, Flood Defence, Prison Capacity, and the hospital building programme. Along with my co-author Joe Flanagan, I developed the “Five Case Model” which has been adopted by Her Majesty’s Treasury and is now mandatory for business case development across the UK public sector (see https://gov.wales/five-case-model-templates). The model is explained in our ground-breaking book – Making Sense of Public Sector Investments. I have also served as trustee and church warden in the Church of England for four years.

My current research focuses on the social and economic impacts of slavery and colonialism on the English-speaking Caribbean. I am currently writing a book on “structural racism” and “white privilege” in Britain.

I am the author of several books including the following:

Socialist Transformation in Peripheral Economies: Lessons from Grenada (Avebury, 1995); ISBN 9781859720509

Making Sense of the Private Finance Initiative: Developing Public/Private Partnerships (Radcliffe Medical Press, 1999); ISBN 9781857753813

Making Sense of Public Sector Investments: The ‘Five Case’ model in decision-making (Radcliffe Medical Press, 2001); ISBN 9781857754322 (with Joe Flanagan)

The Wonderful You: Find your Purpose and live the Life of your Dreams now (Hansib, 2016); ISBN 9781910553428

You can click the button above to read my books.