Matt Ridley

The Right Honourable The Viscount Ridley DL FRSL FMedSci
Ridley at Thinking Digital 2013
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 February 2013
Preceded by	Robert Shirley, 13th Earl Ferrers
Chairman of Northern Rock
In office 2004–2007
Personal details
Born	Matthew White Ridley (1958-02-07) 7 February 1958 (age 59) Northumberland
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Anya Hurlbert (m. 1989)
Children	one son, one daughter
Parents	Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley Lady Anne Katharine Gabrielle Lumley
Residence	Blagdon Hall, Northumberland
Alma mater	Eton College University of Oxford (BA, DPhil)
Occupation	Journalist, businessman, author
Known for	The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (1994) Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters (1999) The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (2010) Northumberlandia
Awards	Deputy Lieutenant of Northumberland (2007) Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (1999) Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2004)
Employer	The Economist Centre for Life Northern Rock
Website	mattridley.co.uk
Scientific career
Thesis	Mating system of the pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) (1983)
Doctoral advisor	Chris Perrins

Matthew White Ridley, 5th Viscount Ridley DL FRSL FMedSci (born 7 February 1958), known commonly as Matt Ridley, is a British journalist, businessman and author of popular science books. Since 2013 Ridley has been a Conservative hereditary peer in the House of Lords.

Ridley is best known for his writings on science, the environment, and economics. He has written several science books including The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (1994), Genome (1999), The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (2010) and The Evolution of Everything: How Ideas Emerge (2015).

Ridley was chairman of the UK bank Northern Rock from 2004 to 2007, during which period Northern Rock experienced the first run on a British bank in 150 years. Ridley chose to resign, and the bank was bailed out by the UK government leading to the nationalisation of Northern Rock.

Ridley was born to Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley (1925–2012), and Lady Anne Katharine Gabrielle Lumley (1928–2006), daughter of Lawrence Roger Lumley, 11th Earl of Scarbrough.

He attended Eton College from 1970–75 and then went on to Magdalen College, Oxford, to study zoology. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with First Class Honours and continued with research on the mating system of the common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) supervised by Chris Perrins for his DPhil in 1983.