PRIVATIZER

noun (Business World) (Politics) A person who advocates the transfer of nationalized industries to the private sector; someone who carries out privatization. Etymology: Formed by adding the agent suffix -er to the verb privatize, which has been used since the early seventies in the sense 'to assign (services, industries, etc.) to private enterprise'. History and Usage: Privatizer arose at the beginning of the eighties and has been used especially of members of the Conservative government in the UK, with its policy of selling national service industries and encouraging ordinary citizens to own the shares. Mr Redwood, the new under secretary, is an evangelical privatiser of similar persuasion and a leading light in the No Turning Back group of radical reformers. Guardian 27 July 1989, p. 18