He was previously regional director of the Economist Intelligence Unit in Asia, worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, Citigroup and American Express and was a visiting professor at Cass Business School between 1988 and 2002.

[citation needed] Maxton is the co-author with Bernice Maxton-Lee of A Chicken can’t lay a Duck Egg: How COVID-19 can solve the climate crisis, (Changemakers Books 2020) and of Globaler Klimanotstand: Warum unser demokratisches System an seine Grenzen stößt (Komplett-Media 2020).

Both books examine the causes of society's failure to respond to climate change and propose radical solutions to bring the pace of global warming under control.

Maxton is the sole author of The End of Progress, How Modern Economics Has Failed Us[3] which was nominated for the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

[8] Maxton provided the afterword for 2021 book Wild Life about the Victorian nature writer from Swindon Richard Jefferies.