Dame Mavis McDonald

Dame Mavis McDonald DCB is in the Permanent Secretary Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, UK

Mavis McDonald has been Permanent Secretary to the office of the Deputy Prime Minister since its creation in May 2002.

Dame Mavis joined the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in September 1966; served in the private office of the Minister for Housing and Local Government and the Secretary of State for the Environment when the broad-based Department of the Environment was set up; and was Private Secretary to the permanent Secretary, Sir James Jones. Subsequent posts included financial management, human resources, local government finance and reorganization, and social housing policy and programmes. From 1995-2000, as Director General at the DOE and then the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), her responsibilities included wildlife and countryside policy, housing, land use planning, construction industry sponsorship, and regeneration. From 2000 to 2002 she was Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office responsible for the Modernising Government agenda.

She is Deputy Chair of the Board of Governor’s of Birkbeck College, University of London; a member of the Advisory Board for the Warwick Institute of Governance and Public Management and an honorary member of the Chartered Institute of Housing. She has a wealth of experience in the Social Housing sector and was a non-executive Director of Tarmac Housing Division (1988-91).