Tony Danker was born in 1971 and is a British businessman, and was the director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) from November 2020 to March 2023.
Danker was born in 1971 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was educated at Belfast Royal Academy and earned a law degree from the University of Manchester.
He took a career break to study for a Master of Public Administration (MPA) at Harvard University, which he completed in 2005.
Danker was chair of the Union of Jewish Students from 1993 to 1994.
After leaving the University of Manchester, he worked for the former Chief Rabbi, the late Lord Jonathan Sacks, from 1994 to 1996.
From 1998 to 2008, he was a consultant with McKinsey. From 2008 to 2010, during the Brown Ministry, he was a special adviser to HM Treasury.
From 2010 to 2017, he was the international director and then chief strategy officer at Guardian News and Media, which publishes The Guardian and The Observer.
From 2017 to 2020, he was chief executive of Be the Business, a government and industry-funded body launched by George Osborne that aims to make British companies more productive.
In June 2020, it was announced that he would be the next director general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI): he succeeded Carolyn Fairbairn in November 2020.
In 2023, Danker stepped aside after accusations arose of inappropriate workplace conduct involving a female employee earlier in the year. The CBI announced that it would be independently investigating the accusations. Danker has been accused of unwanted contact and sexual harassment.
On 11 April 2023, the CBI announced that Danker had been dismissed with immediate effect as his conduct had fallen “short of that expected of the director general”.
Why Has Tony Danker Been Sacked? Why Was Tony Danker Dismissed?
Accused of sexual harassment, director general Tony Danker was dismissed with immediate effect on Tuesday, April 11. There are also allegations of rape and sexual assault dating from 2019 involving other leaders of the organization.