Title:Positive Neutrality and Trust – the policy role of a permanent civil service

Speaker: Martin Donnelly, PUS (Top civil servant) at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 


Moderator: Prof. YU An, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University


Time: 9:00-10:00, October 16, 2014


Venue: Room 321, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University


Language: English (Chinese translation provided)


Bio of Speaker:

Martin Donnelly joined the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as Permanent Secretary in October 2010. Prior to this, he was acting Permanent Secretary at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO).

Martin has extensive economic and international experience. He joined the FCO Board in 2004 as Director General, Europe and Globalisation, where he was G8 foreign affairs sherpa. Between 1998 and 2003 he was the Deputy Head of the Cabinet Office European Secretariat, leading work on European economic reform. He has worked on secondment in the European Commission, French Finance Ministry and Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator.

During his career, Martin has worked on policy across Whitehall and with key business stakeholders. He was Policy Director of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate at the Home Office and led the Treasury team controlling defence spending and managing European monetary issues. He has served as Private Secretary to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Martin studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford, International Economics at the College of Europe, Bruges and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, Paris.