BIS appoints director general for business and science

Gareth Davies has been the interim since September 2015

Gareth Davies has been appointed as director general for business and science at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Davies has been the interim director general for business and science since September 2015, and will continue to lead approximately 450 staff, delivering ministers’ priorities to promote economic growth through research, innovation and transfer of knowledge, skills and ideas, as well as leading directorates with responsibility for business and enterprise.

He was previously the executive director and chief economist in the Cabinet Office, responsible for civil society, innovation and analysis.

Over the past decade he has worked in Downing Street as the prime minister’s lead adviser on welfare reform, been Head of the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and was a board member of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

He spent his early career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, specialising in asset sales, competition policy and investment appraisal.

Davies said: “I’m very excited to have the opportunity to see through the major reforms we started over the past year, including establishing Research UK, ensuring the UK can benefit from the fourth industrial revolution, and transforming the department.”