Michael Barber (educationist)

Sir
Michael Barber
Sir Michael Barber, 2017
Government portrait, 2017
Born (1955-11-24) 24 November 1955 (age 68)
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Educationist
Chancellor of the University of Exeter
Chairman of Somerset County Cricket Club
Known forFounder and chairman of Delivery Associates

Sir Michael Bayldon Barber (born 24 November 1955[2]) is a British former public servant and educationist known for serving as head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit under Tony Blair’s government. He was knighted in 2005 for his contributions.[3] He is the founder and chairman of Delivery Associates,[4] a global advisory firm.[5][6]

He has advised governments in over 60 countries on issues of public policy and delivery. He was the founder and first head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit under Prime Minister Tony Blair, and later served as chief education advisor at Pearson,[7] and as a partner at McKinsey, where he was head of the global education practice. He served as co-chair of Boston Consulting Group's not-for-profit foundation and the Centre for Public Impact.[8]

Barber published How to Run a Government: So that Citizens Benefit and Taxpayers Don’t go Crazy[9] in 2015, and his latest book, Accomplishment – How to achieve ambitious and challenging things,[10] was published by Penguin in 2021.

In 2021, he was asked by the UK Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary to conduct a review of government delivery after COVID-19.[11] In January 2022, Barber was appointed Chancellor of the University of Exeter.[12] In April 2022, Barber was announced as the new chairman of Somerset County Cricket Club.[13]

  1. ^ GRO Register of Births: DEC 1955 10d 736 LIVERPOOL S. - Michael B. Barber, mmn = Fowkes
  2. ^ "Sir Michael Barber: Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). National Research University Higher School of Economics. 2009. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  3. ^ "Honours and Awards". 15 September 2006. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  4. ^ "Delivery Associates | Homepage". www.deliveryassociates.com. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  5. ^ "Delivery Associates: Global leaders in public sector strategy and implementation". deliveryassociates.org.com. 11 January 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  6. ^ "20 things about delivery from Michael Barber (and 3 stories about a neglected American President) you really need to know". Institute for Government. 20 March 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  7. ^ "Sir Michael Barber to Join Pearson as Chief Education Advisor". pearsoned.com. 26 May 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  8. ^ "Centre For Public Impact, a BCG Foundation". Centre For Public Impact.
  9. ^ Barber, Michael (2017), How to Run a Government: So that Citizens Benefit and Taxpayers Don't go Crazy, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-1419-7958-8
  10. ^ Barber, Michael. "Accomplishment". penguin.co.uk. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  11. ^ "PM's latest hire signals desire for Whitehall reform". BBC News. 12 January 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  12. ^ "University of Exeter". exeter.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
  13. ^ "Sir Michael Barber announced as new chair of SCCC". Somerset County Cricket Club. 13 April 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2022.