Danny Gabay

BORN LEEDS, JANUARY 15, 1969. DIED LONDON, MAY 9, 2016, AGED 47

THE FORMER Bank of England economist Danny Gabay, who co-founded Fathom Financial Consulting, has died from a particularly aggressive form of brain cancer, first diagnosed nearly six years ago. He successfully fought the illness until the tumour returned last summer and reappeared in the last couple of months.

“His passing is a great loss not only to his family, friends and colleagues, but also to the wider economics community,” said Erik Britton, co-director at Fathom Consulting. “He is going to be very sorely missed by all of us.”

His parents, Maureen, a doctor, and Moroccan-born Shimon Gabay, head teacher at a local high school, had met and married in Israel, settling in Beer Sheva, where he and his sister Dalia spent their formative years. Gabay was barmitzvah at the Kotel and Israel always had a place in his heart, even when the family relocated to the UK in 1975, when he was six. They lived in Leeds, Manchester, Salford, Nottingham and Harrogate before moving back to Leeds in 1983 when Gabay was aged 14 and became involved with Balfour and the Judean Club.

In childhood he was extremely gifted and highly intelligent. In Nottingham, where he was a member of BBYO, he was the only pupil at primary school to have won a full scholarship to attend Nottingham High School. He completed further education and his A-Levels in Leeds before s t u d y i n g for his BSc and MSc in economics at Queen M a r y ’ s College in London. He was a keen Leeds United supporter. Economics became his passion and eventual profession and he made London his home for the next 28 years, apart from the two years he spent in Leeds as a junior economist for the then Government Health Minister, Virginia Bottomley. He progresssed from there to advising Michael L a n g a n d Mic h a e l Heseltine on economic affairs. He married his c h i l d h o o d sweetheart, Fiona Brookes, from Nottingham, but the couple went on to divorce and in 2008 he married his second wife Alex, who worked in his company Fathom Consulting in its early days. Fiona remained a close family friend.

Gabay then rose through the ranks of the Bank of England, where he made his mark before being head-hunted to work for JP Morgan Chase & Co.

During this time he travelled the world, advising on economic matters, although his thorough sense of decency and justice made him out of step with the go-getting culture of his work there. He decided to break free and formed his own company, Fathom Financial Consulting, 12 years ago, and which has grown to be prosperous. It is now run by his business partner and friend Erik Britton and has 24 employees.

Gabay proved popular in the media, especially with City audiences in London’s financial district, and well known for his punchy rhetoric and willingness to take on officials, such as Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney. He advised both to find better ways to reduce the UK’s debit burden without crippling the economy. Hugely inspirational to many people, Gabay was a sharp, astutely intelligent, loving, caring, charismatic, sharp and combative individual with an outrageous sense of humour.

He always maintained that his greatest achievement in life were his two children, Raphael, six and Isabella, four, whom he adored.

His younger sister Dalia said: “My pledge to my brother was to always be there for his children and to never let them forget what a wonderful father, husband, son, brother, uncle, nephew and friend he was to all who met him.”

He is a survived by his first wife Fiona, his second wife Alessandra Vitelli and his two chlldren. His parents predeceased him.