James Lamont is the Financial Times managing editor, appointed in April 2012. Lamont has global responsibility for staffing and strategic planning for the FT s editorial department. Before relocating to London, Lamont spent four years as the FTs South Asia bureau chief, based in New Delhi. He spent the previous four years as world news editor in London. Before that he was news editor for FT Weekend and he has also been a Johannesburg-based Southern Africa correspondent. Before joining the Financial Times in 2001, Lamont was editor of Business Report, South Africa's largest financial daily and a title owned by Dublin-based Independent News & Media. He was deputy editor of the Middle East Times in Cairo. He also reported on oil and gas in the region for the Opec news agency.

Lamont started his career in journalism writing for a UK-based consumer magazine.  He completed his first degree at the University of York in 1990 and did a post graduate course in southern Africa studies.