Scotsman Obituaries: Mike Nevin, economist whose work delivered substantial developments globally
Michael John Nevin, economist. Born: 30 May 1955 in in Aberystwyth. Died: 5 March 2026 in Edinburgh, aged 70
Michael Nevin, who has died aged 70, put his shoulder and keen mind to improving peoples’ lives at home and abroad in the practical manner of developing infrastructure such as roads, housing, sewerage systems, schools and hospitals.
Born in 1955 in Aberystwyth, he was the son of the late Edward (Ted) Nevin and Winifred Elizabeth (née Richards), with five siblings. Mike’s grandfather had risen from being an ordinary docker at Portland Dock to become the local Mayor. His father was similarly successful, gaining a reputation as a first-class academic economist and outstanding teacher at the University of Wales, becoming professor of economics at Aberystwyth 1963-68 and Swansea 1968-85.
The young Mike attended Bishop Gore Comprehensive in Swansea from 1968 to 1973, where his economics teacher John Booth considered him his star pupil. He then read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Pembroke College, Oxford University, where he graduated with a First Class honours degree in 1976. The following year he added an MA (Econ), Economics and Econometrics from the University of Manchester.
After graduating Mike began his influential career as an economist with the Crown Office, working for the Ministry of Finance of the Government of St Lucia during the period leading up to and immediately following the island’s independence from the UK.
His achievements in St Lucia brought an offer of work from the Commonwealth Development Corporation in London, which financed and ran projects in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. His time as a financial analyst included attending negotiations with the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg.
This led directly to joining the EIB in Luxembourg as a Loan Officer responsible for the Bank’s African loans. In 1984 Mike met Caroline, later to become his wife, in Edinburgh, and she joined him in Luxembourg in 1985 to work in the European Parliament. They married in 1986. Mike now spent time visiting Botswana, Burundi, Lesotho, Malawi and Mozambique to negotiate loans for coal and hydro electric power plants, water and sanitation systems, a tea plantation, cement works and vegetable cannery.
Mike always itched to get back to the UK, so he and Caroline returned in 1986, with Mike taking a pay cut to join the London Docklands Development Corporation with responsibility for the financial planning and management of the largest urban regeneration programme ever implemented.
Mike’s work in Surrey Docks realised a substantial profit for the Corporation and became a model for funding urban regeneration through private finance rather than government grants.
Yet for all his towering intellect, or perhaps because of it, Mike could never be accused of possessing a practical streak. One of his friends still dines out on the story of Mike, having volunteered to do the cooking one evening, and being found attempting to mash potatoes without boiling them first. Another friend visiting him in Luxembourg was met with the news there had been no hot water in Mike’s flat for several days. An extinguished pilot light had proven to be a challenge too far for Mike.
Professionally, though, he was in demand more than ever and joined international accountants Touche Ross in London and Edinburgh in 1990 (before it became Deloitte Touche in 1995). An early task was providing support to the UK Department of Trade and Industry. Over 1,000 copies of Nevin’s study, Global Climate Change: The Role of Technology Transfer, proved highly influential after circulation at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development and also at the Earth Summit, both held in Rio de Janeiro.
He later served on secondment with the Private Finance Unit of the Scottish Office in 1996/97, leading to Mike leaving Deloitte & Touche in 1998 to found Caledonian Economics, which specialised in PFI/PPP advice. As managing director he led the firm’s transactions team handling investments valued at over £1 billion – when that was a very large number. Anticipating, correctly, a downturn in the UK PPP market, he sold his majority interest in Caledonian Economics in 2007 and established his own consultancy, Nevin Associates Ltd, based in the family home at Trinity, Edinburgh.
This again took him to Africa, working primarily in establishing best practice for identifying and delivering large-scale projects in Nigeria and Rwanda under the auspices of Adam Smith International, which was running UK government development aid projects across the continent.
Beyond professional economics Mike had a lifelong fascination with and support for the Stuart cause. In 2002 he acquired a handwritten memorandum submitted by Prince Charles Edward Stuart to Louis XV of France. Between 2005 and 2010 he served as Treasurer of the 1745 Association, and became the Association’s chair in 2016.
In 2024 Nevin’s book Reminiscences of a Jacobite was released by Birlinn, with his publisher Hugh Andrew remarking it was people like Mike, with their enthusiasm and commitment, who were keeping Scottish history alive. This interest included providing Jacobite walking tours in Edinburgh, which he continued doggedly right up to his death, although clearly weakening from a long-term illness.
Mike was still researching and writing economic articles until he died. He had just published his perceptive findings on the unintended consequences of the UK’s minimum wage for young people. “My concern is that they are being priced out of work by rising minimum wages which make it uneconomic for employers to take them on,” he wrote.
A clubbable networker who made friends easily, being a member of Edinburgh’s Tuesday and New Chapter dining clubs, Mike earned a reputation as a gentleman exuding charm, wit and gravitas.
He always turned up to meetings with me with the gift of a fat cigar – a memory of smoking at the Hilton Abuja Pool Bar, plotting the next project into the wee small hours of a Nigerian morning.
In 1986 Mike married Caroline Kellacher, who survives him along with their son Jamie.
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