James Fry did his undergraduate degree in Mathematics at New College, Oxford, and D. Phil in Economics at Nuffield College, Oxford. His first university teaching positions were in Zambia and Congo Kinshasa, and he returned to England to teach Economics at Magdalen College, Oxford.
In 1980, he founded LMC International as a consultancy focusing on the economics of agriculture and agri-based industries and is now the company’s Chairman. In his time at LMC, he has overseen LMC’s expansion into different continents and into a number of different specialist research teams, ranging from the major crops like grains, sugar and oilseeds to coffee, cocoa and rubber. LMC then established separate teams dedicated to downstream activities, as diverse as oleochemicals, biofuels and tyres, and moved on from tyres to the auto sector, where LMC Automotive is now the world’s second largest economic consultancy in the auto sector.
LMC’s HQ is in the city centre in Oxford, and James decided to emulate LMC’s growth path by diversifying his own time, in his case, into local government by being elected to Oxford City Council seven years ago, where he chairs a wide variety of committees.
