He was previously Deputy Governor for Monetary Policy at the Bank of England from 1 July 2008 until 30 June 2014.

Bean attended Brentwood School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and was a contemporary of the comedian Griff Rhys Jones at both and the writer, Douglas Adams, and the Member of Parliament (MP) Fabian Hamilton at Brentwood School.

He gained his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981 with a thesis titled Essays in unemployment and economic activity under the supervision of Robert Solow.

He has published articles on European unemployment, the Economic and Monetary Union, and on macroeconomics generally.

Bean has also served in a variety of public policy roles, such as consultant to Her Majesty's Treasury and as special adviser to both the Treasury Committee of the House of Commons and to the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.