Ian Linnell

Ian Linnell serves as president of Fitch Ratings, where he assumes executive responsibility for all aspects of Fitch’s credit ratings business including analytical, commercial and operational activities.

Previously, Linnell was the global analytical head for Fitch Ratings from 2012 to early 2017, where he oversaw ratings and research for all sectors including corporate finance, financial institutions, structured finance and covered bonds, sovereigns, U.S. public finance and global infrastructure and project finance.

Prior to becoming global analytical head, Linnell was global head of structured finance and covered bonds. This group provides credit ratings and research on asset-backed securities, covered bonds, residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities and structured credit. Linnell held numerous analytical roles at Fitch, including head of EMEA banks and global head of credit policy, where he expanded the group beyond the Americas to cover all other regions. He joined Fitch in 1997 as a regional director in financial institutions, with responsibility for rating, analyzing and developing company criteria for Scandinavia, Switzerland and major U.K. financial institutions.

Prior to joining Fitch, Linnell spent five years as an analyst with Standard & Poor’s. Earlier in his career, he was an economist and a banking supervisor for the Bank of England.

Linnell earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Newcastle Upon Tyne University.