Bronwyn Hill

Bronwyn Hill
CBE
Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
In office
28 March 2011 – 31 July 2015
Secretary of StateCaroline Spelman
Owen Paterson
Liz Truss
Preceded byDame Helen Ghosh
Succeeded byClare Moriarty
Personal details
Born1960
Bradford, England, United Kingdom
Alma materGirton College, Cambridge
OccupationCivil Servant

Bronwyn Hill CBE (born 1960) is a former British civil servant, who served as the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Hill was born in Bradford in 1960 and educated at St Anthony's School and St Joseph's College, Bradford, and at Girton College, Cambridge, where she graduated with a degree in geography.[1][2] She was appointed a CBE in the 2001 New Year Honours List.[3]

Hill joined the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1981, where she worked on transport planning policy.[2] When the GLC was abolished in 1986, she moved to the Inner London Education Authority and then joined the Department of Transport (later the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions and then Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions) in 1988.[2] Between 2005 and 2007, she was regional director at the Government Office for the South West before returning to what was now the Department for Transport.[4]

She was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in March 2011.[4] Her appointment brought the number of female permanent secretaries to eight of the 16 government departments for the first time.[5] She stepped down as permanent secretary in the summer of 2015.[6]

Hill was appointed to the board of the Office for Nuclear Regulation in 2016 for a four-year term.[7][8] She joined The Royal Parks Board in 2016 and was reappointed for a further four years in 2021.[9] She joined the Governing Body of the University of Greenwich in 2017, becoming chair in 2020.[10][11]

  1. ^ O'Rourke, Tanya (17 March 2011). "Bronwyn Hill is former pupil of St Anthony's School, Clayton". Bradford Telegraph and Argus. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  2. ^ a b c Brecknell, Suzannah (26 September 2011). "Interview: Bronwyn Hill". Civil Service World. Archived from the original on 7 April 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  3. ^ "New Year Honours 2000 : DBEs to CBEs : Order of the British Empire : CBE". BBC News. 30 December 2000. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  4. ^ a b "New Permanent Secretary for Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs" (Press release). Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. 3 March 2011. Archived from the original on 1 March 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  5. ^ Moorhead, Joanna (3 March 2011). "Bronwyn Hill: the woman who smashed Whitehall's glass ceiling". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  6. ^ "Bronwyn Hill to step down as Defra permanent secretary". Civil Service World. 2 July 2015. Archived from the original on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  7. ^ "Former Defra permanent secretary Bronwyn Hill cleared to take up job with nuclear watchdog". Civil Service World. 25 January 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  8. ^ "ONR Board appointments". Office for Nuclear Regulation (Press release). 22 January 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2021. Nick Baldwin, Chair of the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), welcomes Bronwyn Hill CBE to the ONR Board … as a Non-Executive Director.
  9. ^ "Heather Blackman, Bronwyn Hill and Wesley Kerr reappointed as Trustees of The Royal Parks" (Press release). gov.uk. 7 May 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  10. ^ "The University of Greenwich has confirmed a new Chair of its Governing Body. | Bronwyn Hill CBE, currently vice-chair of Governors, succeeded Marianne Ismail on 1 August". University of Greenwich (Press release). 3 August 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  11. ^ "Membership of the Governing Body". University of Greenwich. Retrieved 10 August 2021.