Lambert to step down from CBI

Richard Lambert is to step down as director general of the CBI in 2011 after nearly five years at the helm of the business lobby group.

The CBI said Mr Lambert – who took up the post of director general in July 2006 – is to leave early next year.

It confirmed that headhunters have been appointed to lead a search for his successor.

Mr Lambert said it was the "right time in the political and economic cycle for me to hand over to a new director general". He added: "The new government is in place and is generating a huge range of policy issues which the CBI is getting stuck into. And the economy is moving into a new phase, in which business investment and trade will be the essential engines of recovery."

The CBI praised Mr Lambert for his "experience and wise counsel" throughout the credit crunch and subsequent recession, which dominated his tenure. He said he had "no definite plans" after leaving the CBI.

Mr Lambert was previously editor of the Financial Times newspaper and was also a member of the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee between 2003 and 2006.