Helen Ghosh

Dame Helen Frances Ghosh DCB (born 1956-02-21) is a British Civil Servant who is currently the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). She is currently the only female permanent secretary to head a major department of the British Government. [ [http://society.guardian.co.uk/publicmanager/story/0,,2038455,00.html "The gender agenda"] , Guardian Unlimited, 21 March 2007]

Background

Mrs Ghosh was born in Farnborough in 1956 and educated at [http://www.farnborough-hill.org.uk/cms/ Farnborough Hill Convent] , St Hugh's College, Oxford and Hertford College, Oxford. She is married with one daughter and one son.

Career

Mrs Ghosh joined the Department of the Environment in 1979 as an Administration Trainee and held a series of policy roles. She was appointed Private Secretary to the Minister for Environment and Housing in 1986-88 and Head of the Housing Policy and Home Ownership Team in 1992. In July 1995, she joined the Cabinet Office on loan as Deputy Director of the Efficiency Unit then moved to a more operationally focused role in 1997 in the Government Office for London, where she worked as Director for London East and European Programmes, which brought her into contact with a variety of EU bodies, in particular those administering regeneration funds.

Between May 1999 and November 1999, she was Head of the New Deal for Communities Programme at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, working on cross-cutting and delivery issues. She then joined the Department for Work and Pensions as Director of the Children's Group, which had responsibility for child benefit, child support, child poverty issues and the Tax Credit Programme.

She rejoined the Cabinet Office on 22 October 2001 as Head of Central Secretariat [ [http://www.gnn.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=49652&NewsAreaID=2&print=false "Senior Appointment: Head of Central Secretariat"] , press release by the Cabinet Office on GNN, 30 October 2001] and in 2003, became Director General for Corporate Services at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), [ [http://213.86.35.230/UKTaxLibrary/UK+Tax+Other/Tax+administration+and+enforcement+pre-2006/Inland+Revenue+Board+Changes.htm?NRMODE=Published "Changes to the Board of the Inland Revenue"] , press release by the Inland Revenue,10 March 2003] where she played an important part in the transformation programme merging the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise to form the new department. She was appointed Permanent Secretary at Defra on 7 November 2005. [ [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldhansrd/vo051219/text/51219w04.htm Written answers by Lord Bach to Parliamentary Questions asked by Baroness Byford] , Hansard, 19 December 2005.]

She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath (DCB) in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in June 2008. [cite news|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-queens-birthday-honours-anna-wintour-calzaghe-and-nyman-make-list-846944.html|title=The Queen's Birthday Honours|date=2008-06-14|publisher=The Independent|accessdate=2008-06-14]

Non-executive positions

Mrs Ghosh was appointed as a non-executive director on the management board of the Department for International Development [ [http://www.dfid.gov.uk/aboutdfid/management-board/mbmembership.asp DFID Management Board Membership] ] in 2004. In 2007 she joined the Board of the National School for Government [ [http://www.nationalschool.gov.uk National School of Government ] ] .

References

*(2007), "Who's Who", A & C Black Publishers Ltd.

ee also

* [http://www.number10.gov.uk/output/Page8304.asp "New Permanent Secretary of Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs"] , press release by the 10 Downing Street media centre, 13 October 2005.
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/public/womeninpublic/story/0,,1720843,00.html "On the charm offensive"] , Guardian Unlimited, undated.
* [http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=6924&topic=Central%20government "Putting a positive spin on leading Defra"] , an interview with Helen Ghosh, Public Servant Daily, 23 June 2006.
* [http://www.civilservicenetwork.com/index.php?id=97&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=1348&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=29 "Big City Smallholder"] , an interview with Helen Ghosh, Whitehall and Westminster Civil Service Network, 10 October 2006.
* [http://www.civilservicenetwork.com/index.php?id=79&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5d=13989&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=29 "The Green Machine"] , an interview with Helen Ghosh, Whitehall and Westminster Civil Service Network, 1 May 2007.
* [http://www.civilservicenetwork.com/index.php?id=41&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=13911&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=29 "Renewing Defra"] , news article, Whitehall and Westminster Civil Service Network, 2 May 2007.
* [http://www.civilservicenetwork.com/news/article.html?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=14067&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=107&cHash=b99c3e1099 "Ghosh keen to learn from rural payments"] , news article, Whitehall and Westminster Civil Service Network, 3 May 2007.