Michael Vivian Posner CBE (25 August 1931 – 14 February 2006) was a University of Cambridge economics lecturer turned government adviser, who later worked to safeguard social science research in the United Kingdom.
His father, originally a cabinet-maker, had immigrated from Russia to escape pogroms against the Jewish community.
Posner’s maternal grandparents had also fled European persecution.
After World War II the family settled in Croydon, where Posner attended Whitgift School.
In 1953, Posner married linguist Rebecca Reynolds.