John James Cowperthwaite

Sir John James Cowperthwaite
Financial Secretary of Hong Kong
In office
17 April 1961 – 30 June 1971
MonarchElizabeth II
GovernorSir Robert Black
Sir David Trench
Preceded byArthur Grenfell Clarke
Succeeded byCharles Philip Haddon-Cave
Personal details
Born(1915-04-25)25 April 1915
Died21 January 2006(2006-01-21) (aged 90)
SpouseSheila Mary Thomson
ChildrenJohn James Hamish Cowperthwaite
Alma materMerchiston Castle School
St Andrews University
Christ's College, Cambridge
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John James Cowperthwaite
Traditional Chinese郭伯偉
Transcriptions
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationGwok Baak Wáih
Jyutpinggwok3 baak3 wai5

Sir John James Cowperthwaite, KBE, CMG (Chinese: 郭伯偉爵士; 25 April 1915 – 21 January 2006), was a British civil servant who served as Financial Secretary of Hong Kong from 1961 to 1971. His introduction of free-market economic policies are widely credited with turning postwar Hong Kong into a thriving global financial centre. During Cowperthwaite's tenure as Financial Secretary, real wages in Hong Kong rose by 50%, and the portion of the population in acute poverty fell from 50% to 15%.