Sir Gus O'Donnell KCB Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service

Sir Gus O'Donnell took over as Cabinet Secretary on 1 August 2005. Prior to that, he was Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury (July 2002-July 2005).  Before that he had been Managing Director, Macroeconomic Policy and International Finance since 1999. From 1998-9 he was Director of Macroeconomic Policy and Prospects, and from 1997-98 was the UK's Executive Director to the IMF and World Bank.  He has also been Head of the Government Economics Service, the UK's largest employer of professional economists.

Gus O'Donnell studied economics at the University of Warwick and Nuffield College Oxford. He joined the Treasury as an economist in 1979, having spent four years as an economics lecturer at the University of Glasgow. Subsequent posts in Government included Press Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1989-90) and Press Secretary to the Prime Minister (1990-94). His interests include football, cricket, golf and tennis.  He is married with one daughter.

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