Senior UK civil servant Jenny Bates was today appointed as the fourth Heywood Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government. She will be a visiting fellow at Hertford College.
The purpose of the Fellowship, created by the Heywood Foundation in memory of Jeremy Heywood, Cabinet Secretary from 2012 to 2018, is to give a senior UK civil servant the opportunity to explore issues relating to public service and policy outside of the immediate responsibilities of government duties, with a focus on longer-term issues and/or those that cut across government departments.
During her fellowship, Jenny will consider the changing global economic order and seek to develop a refreshed approach - or longer-term strategy - for the UK. This project will seek to diagnose, understand and take account of that shifting global context and the UK’s position and to develop an approach that can both respond to the needs and aspirations of the people of the UK and endure through inevitable uncertainty.
Professor Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School, said:
“We are thrilled to welcome Jenny to the School as our new Heywood Fellow. Her project is timely, as the world seeks to adjust to the global economic and social dynamics that are reshaping the fabric of communities and testing national resilience. We are grateful too to the Heywood Foundation for this important partnership that continues to give senior policymakers the time to take a deep dive into some of the most challenging issues of our time.”
Suzanne Heywood, the Chair of the Heywood Foundation, said:
“We are delighted to appoint Jenny as our fourth Heywood Fellow. The fellowship has proved itself to be an effective way for senior officials to tackle challenging policy issues. It has also shown the power of combining government experience with academic rigour and gaining insights from people outside of government and from other countries. The Board of the Foundation is very much looking forward to the thinking that will come out of Jenny’s fellowship, which is tackling a critical topic for the UK.”
Professor Patrick Roche, Interim Principal, Hertford College said:
“We are delighted to welcome Jenny as the next Heywood Fellow at Hertford College and the Blavatnik School. We look forward to introducing Jenny to the college and promoting the legacy of our wonderful alumnus Jeremy Heywood in improving governance and policy development, supported by the Heywood Foundation.”
Jenny said:
“I am delighted and excited to be appointed as the next Heywood Fellow. I had the privilege of engaging with Jeremy when he was Cabinet Secretary and was always impressed by his ability to alight on the core of any issue and keep our focus in the civil service on real world impact. I am a passionate advocate and practitioner of evidence-based policymaking and the opportunity to spend time researching a challenging topic of intense interest to policymakers is a great privilege.
“I am also delighted to be following Lucy Smith and Jonathan Black as the previous fellows. My project will build on – and draw from – their important work on developing a national view and strategic approach to issues that really matter and on working across the intersection of domains (domestic and international, economic and security).”
Jenny will undertake this work during a nine-month period of special leave from the UK Civil Service, during which she will be based at the Blavatnik School. For the duration of the work Jenny will also be a Visiting Fellow at Hertford College, Oxford, Lord Heywood’s former college.
The Heywood Foundation established the Heywood Visiting Fellowship at the Blavatnik School with support from the Cabinet Office, Hertford College and the ESRC.
Jeremy Heywood – Lord Heywood of Whitehall – served as Cabinet Secretary from January 2012 to October 2018. He was also Head of the Civil Service from September 2014. Jeremy Heywood had previously served three Prime Ministers in 10 Downing Street as Principal Private Secretary to Tony Blair (1998–2003) and Permanent Secretary in Number 10 to Gordon Brown (2008–10) and to David Cameron (2010–12). In previous roles in the Civil Service, Jeremy Heywood served as Principal Private Secretary to successive Chancellors of the Exchequer, Norman Lamont (1991–3) and Kenneth Clarke (1993–4). Jeremy Heywood was committed to innovation in public service and to broadening the Civil Service so that its diversity more fully represented the citizens it serves. These priorities lie at the heart of the work of the Heywood Foundation which was established in his memory.
Jenny Bates’ career has spanned more than two decades of economic policymaking in the British government (in FCDO, BEIS and HM Treasury), working across the intersection of international and domestic economic issues. Jenny is a professional economist and has led interdisciplinary analytical teams, as well as leading policy work on topics including trade and economic security, industrial strategy, climate and the energy transition and development finance.
Jenny was Director General in the FCDO from 2020 to 2025, undertaking two roles focused on China and the Indo Pacific and then more recently on economics, climate and global issues. Prior to joining FCDO, Jenny led the Smith Commission Secretariat on the devolution of further powers to Scotland and held senior roles in what was then the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. She started her career at HM Treasury working on global economic issues and engaging with groupings like the Paris Club, OECD, G20 and G7 and had a period focused more on domestic policy, leading a team with responsibility for UK budget delivery. Jenny has spent significant time in Washington DC, both through a posting to the British Embassy in Washington from 2005-9 and, before joining government, working on trade policy issues at the Progressive Policy Institute from 1998 to 2001.
