Adam John Sharples, CB,

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

(born 1954) is a British executive, and former civil servant and economist.

Early life and education

Born in 1954, Sharples attended

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517 by Richard Fo ...

, in the early 1970s;"Sharples, Adam John"
''

Who's Who A Who's Who (or Who Is Who) is a reference work consisting of biographical entries of notable people in a particular field. The oldest and best-known is the annual publication ''Who's Who (UK), Who's Who'', a reference work on contemporary promin ...

'' (online ed.,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, December 2018). Retrieved 21 August 2019. there he formed a rock band with

Mark Ellen Mark Ellen (born 16 September 1953) is a British magazine editor, journalist and broadcaster. Early life Ellen was born in Fleet, Hampshire, England. While at Oxford University in the 1970s, he briefly played bass alongside Tony Blair in ...

, with whom he had attended

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

, called Ugly Rumours; following auditions in late 1974, they invited

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

to be their singer but the group disbanded after three performances.

Andy McSmith Andy McSmith is a freelance English journalist. He was a journalist at ''The Independent'' newspaper from April 2007 to April 2016, having previously been political correspondent on the same paper, and political editor of the '' Independent on ...

,
Faces of Labour: The Inside Story
' (

Verso ''Recto'' is the "right" or "front" side and ''verso'' is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper () in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. In double-sided printing, each leaf h ...

, 2006), p. 33. Sharples graduated from Oxford in 1975 and completed a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in economics at

Queen Mary College, University of London Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University ...

, in 1977.

Career

The Labour Party and NUPE

In 1978, Sharples began working for the Labour Party as an economist and became a main author of its

Alternative Economic Strategy The Alternative Economic Strategy (AES) is the name of an economic programme proposed by Tony Benn, a dissident member of the British Labour Party, during the 1970s and 1980s. The Secretary of State for Industry in the Labour government, Tony Be ...

. In 1983, he left the party and spent five years as Head of Research at the

National Union of Public Employees The National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) was a British trade union which existed between 1908 and 1993. It represented public sector workers in local government, the Health Service, universities, and water authorities. History The union w ...

(NUPE). In 1987, he and

Tom Sawyer Thomas "Tom" Sawyer () is the title character of the Mark Twain novel '' The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain: '' Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (1884), '' Tom Sawyer Abroad'' (1894), and '' Tom Sawy ...

(chairman of the Labour Party's Home Policy Committee and Deputy General-Secretary of NUPE) proposed a "comprehensive policy review" for Labour "to bring discipline to a party drifting dangerously after its third electoral defeat", in the words of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. The review was published in 1989.

Civil service

Sharples entered HM Civil Service in 1988 as a principal in

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, Tax ...

. His departure from NUPE drew comment from ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', which used him as an example of the "haemorrhage of talent from the unions of the boys and girls who would, in other circumstances, have grown up into the Norman Willises and Clive Jenkinses of the early 21st century. What's galling isn't just that they're going, but that they are going to the very places doing the unions down". Sharples was promoted at the Treasury, eventually serving as Director of Public Spending from 1998 to 2003. He spent a year at the

Board of Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation tax, ...

as Director for International and then joined the

Department for Work and Pensions The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for welfare spending, welfare, pensions and child maintenance ...

in 2004 as Director-General of the Work, Welfare and the Equality Group; in 2009, this position was abolished and he became Director-General for Employment, serving until 2011, when he left the civil service.

Private sector

Sharples worked for

Which? ''Which?'' is a United Kingdom brand name that promotes informed consumer choice in the purchase of goods and services by testing products, highlighting inferior products or services, raising awareness of consumer rights, and offering indepen ...

for a year, before serving as chairman of the Ixion Group from 2012 until 2017. He has been chairman of the Money Advice Trust since 2016.

Honours and awards

In the

2007 Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours 2007 for the Commonwealth realms were announced on 17 June 2007, to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 2007.Antigua & Barbuda list: The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour, and ...

, Sharples was appointed a Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

(CB).''Supplement to the London Gazette''
16 June 2007 (issue 58358), p. 2.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharples, Adam Living people 1954 births British civil servants Companions of the Order of the Bath Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts