Kumar Sabapathy Iyer is a British

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. He is currently the Director General for Economics, Science and Technology at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). He leads all cross-cutting work on international economic policy including oversight of the UK’s sanctions regime. His most recent roles include Director General in the Prime Minister’s COVID-19 Taskforce and before that Chief Economist and a Board Member at the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ministries of fore ...

(FCO).

Early life

Born in London, Iyer grew up in India and then

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

, and went to school at Blurton High School and then

Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College The City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College is a mixed sixth form college on Leek Road, Stoke-on-Trent. It opened its new building on Leek Road in September 2010 having previously been located on Victoria Road, Fenton. The college is also ...

, and then read

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

(BA). As an undergraduate he served as President of the

Durham Union This is a list of social activities at the University of Durham, including details of clubs, societies and other common leisure activities associated with Durham University. Over 200 student clubs and organisations run within Durham Students' Un ...

. He continued his education at

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus"), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th century through to the early 19th century ...

(MPhil), where he was a Bank of England scholar. He was later a Kennedy Scholar and Teaching Fellow in International Capital Markets at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Career

Iyer joined the civil service, being hired from

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by rev ...

into the

Prime Minister's Strategy Unit The Prime Minister's Strategy Unit (often referred to simply as The Strategy Unit) was a unit based in the UK Cabinet Office between 2002 and 2010 (with its predecessor unit, the Performance and Innovation Unit, dating back to 1999). The Strategy ...

in 2008 as part of the UK government's response to the

2007 financial crisis 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...

. In 2010 he transferred to

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ec ...

as the Deputy Director for Strategy, Planning & Budget, and then as the Head of Financial Sector Interventions. From 2013 until 2017, Iyer served as India as the FCO's Deputy High Commissioner for Western India, based in Mumbai, and simultaneously as UK Trade & Investment's Director General for Economics, Trade and Commercial Affairs in South Asia, a role currently known as Her Majesty's Trade Commissioner. After leaving his post in India, Iyer worked as a "Visiting Academic" at

Hertford College, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main ga ...

, and as a senior partner in

Oliver Wyman Oliver Wyman is an American management consulting firm. Founded in New York City in 1984 by former Booz Allen Hamilton partners Alex Oliver and Bill Wyman, the firm has more than 60 offices in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pa ...

. In June 2019, it was announced that Iyer would serve as the Foreign & Commonwealth Office's first chief economist, on the FCO Board. He was consequently the FCO's first ethnic-minority Board member. Iyer was a Director General in the Prime Minister's COVID-19 Taskforce and he is currently Director General Economics, Science and Technology at the FCDO. This was part of structural changes in the Department to meet the immediate and long-term challenges posed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Correspondence from the Foreign Secretary relating to reorganised FCDO structures
dated 21/03/2022. Foreign Affairs Committee, UK Parliament. Retrieved 14 June 2022. In this role, Iyer coordinates international economic policy – ensuring the FCDO makes full use of all economic tools in its foreign policy.

Personal life

Iyer married Kathryn Ann Worth, a criminal barrister at

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 2004; they have one son and one daughter.

References

External links

Iyer's page on the British government's site

Iyer's page at Somerville College's site
1977 births Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Harvard University alumni British civil servants British economists Living people Alumni of University College, Durham Presidents of the Durham Union {{UK-bio-stub