Professor Simon Roberts

Simon Roberts is a professor of economics at the University of Johannesburg, where he founded the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development (CCRED). 

He is also an international economic expert straddling competition economics and industrial development, with a focus on sustainable structural transformation in Africa. 

Simon has been an economics director at the UK Competition and Markets Authority (2019 to 2020) and the Chief Economist of the Competition Commission of South Africa from 2006 to 2012. Simon has worked extensively and published on issues of industrial development, trade, regional and global value chains, competition and economic regulation. He speaks frequently in international forums and advises governments, competition authorities and regulators. In recent years he has established an African Market Observatory at CCRED focusing on agri-food markets in the context of climate change. 

Simon has been closely involved in the development of competition regimes across Africa including working on inquiries and cases. He has testified as an expert witness in a number of major competition cases in South Africa.

• Sustainable structural transformation
• Food systems transformation
• Green hydrogen for industry
• Competition
• Market power
• Industrial development