Daniel Finkelstein (born 30 August 1962) is Executive Editor of The Times, a weekly political columnist and leader writer. As Executive Editor, he is supervising the publication of Times Online and other digital formats. He joined The Times in August 2001 as part of the leader writing team and was Comment Editor from March 2004 - June 2008 before becoming Chief Leader Writer in June 2008. He began The Times blog Comment Central in September 2006 and for eight years has written a popular weekly football column for the paper called The Fink Tank. Before joining The Times, Daniel was adviser to Prime Minister John Major and then Conservative Party Leader William Hague. He began his career in journalism in 1987 working for a series of internet technology newspapers for VNU business publications.