Lord Turnbull sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher. He previously served as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service. He was an undergraduate at Christ’s and has been an Honorary Fellow of the College since 2004.
Andrew Turnbull read Economics at Christ’s, graduating in 1967. He was appointed an Overseas Development Institute Fellow in 1968, working as an economist for the Government of the Republic of Zambia in Lusaka.
He joined HM Treasury in 1970, initially as Assistant Principal, promoted to Principal in 1972, until 1976 when he was seconded to the staff of the International Monetary Fund, rejoining the Treasury in 1978 as Assistant Secretary. In 1983 he was appointed Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, promoted to Under Secretary in 1985, and from 1985 to 1988 he was Head of the General Expenditure Policy Group in the Treasury.
He served as Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister from 1988 to 1992, under Margaret Thatcher and John Major. He then became Deputy Secretary (Public Finance) in the Treasury, becoming Second Permanent Secretary (Public Expenditure) in 1993. From 1994 to 1998 he was Permanent Secretary to the Department of the Environment (later Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions), and from 1998 to 2002 he was Permanent Secretary to the Treasury. He was appointed Secretary of the Cabinet and Head of the Home Civil Service in 2002, retiring in 2005 when he was created a life peer, sitting on the crossbenches in the House of Lords.
He is a former non-executive Director of Prudential plc, Frontier Economics Ltd and the British Land Company plc, and was a Senior Advisor to Booz Allen Hamilton UK. He was also Chair of BH Global, Chair of Governors of Dulwich College, and a Trustee of Zambia Orphans Aid and of the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
Photo Credit: House of Lords / photography by Roger Harris