Helen Ghosh

Ghosh was born in Farnborough, Hampshire, in 1956, to a civil service scientist and a librarian.[5] She was educated at Farnborough Hill, an all-girls independent Catholic school.[6]

She studied modern history at St Hugh's College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1976. She then undertook postgraduate study at Hertford College, Oxford, graduating with a Master of Letters (MLitt) in 1980; her thesis concerned the history of Italy in the 6th century.[7]

Ghosh joined the Department of the Environment in 1979 as an administration trainee.[6] From 1981 to 1983 she was assistant private secretary to Michael Heseltine, the Secretary of State for the Environment.[8] She was private secretary to the Minister for Environment and Housing from 1986 to 1988,[6] and was head of the Housing Policy and Home Ownership Team from 1992 to 1995.[8]

In July 1995 she joined the Cabinet Office on loan, as deputy director of the Efficiency Unit.[9] She left the post in May 1997 to become director of the London East and European Programmes at the Government Office for London.[6]

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.[6] She then joined the Department for Work and Pensions as director of the Children's Group.[8][6]

She rejoined the Cabinet Office in October 2001, as head of Central Secretariat,[6] and, in 2003, became director general for Corporate Services at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC),[10] where she played an important part in the transformation programme merging the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise to form the new department.[11] She was appointed permanent secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in November 2005.[12][13] She replaced David Normington as permanent secretary at the Home Office in January 2011.[14]

In November 2012, she stepped down from her role at the Home Office to become director general at the National Trust.[15][16][17] In April 2018, Ghosh left that role to become Master of Balliol College, Oxford, succeeding Drummond Bone.[18][19]

Ghosh was a board member of the National School for Government,[20] and a committee member and former chair of the Blackfriars Overseas Aid Trust, based in Oxford.[21] She was elected a Rhodes Trustee in 2011.[22]

She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath (DCB) in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in June 2008.[23] In 2010, The Tablet named her as one of Britain's most influential Roman Catholics.[24]

She is married with one daughter and one son; her husband Peter Ghosh is a tutor in modern history at St Anne's College, Oxford.[25]