Category champions
Category Champions
The Civil Service Awards Category Champions are proud supporters of the awards and promote their specific category to colleagues through networks across government and actively encourage nominations.
Our Category Champions select an expert panel to support them in reviewing the nominations before choosing the top entries within their category. Our 2021 champions will be confirmed very soon, in the meantime, take a look at our 2020 champion line up:
Alex Aiken - Category Champion for The Communication Award
Alex Aiken is the Executive Director for Government Communications. He was appointed in December 2012 and has been responsible for creating the Government Communications Service and developing cross-government campaigns.
Madeleine Alessandri - Category Champion for The Health & Wellbeing Award
Madeleine Alessandri is the UK Deputy National Security Advisor and Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Resilience and Security. She joined government service in 1988 and has held a wide variety of positions in the Diplomatic Service and in National Security both in the UK and overseas.
Simon Case - Category Champion for The Policy & Use of Evidence Award
Simon Case was appointed as the Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service in September 2020. He was previously Director General Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Simon Case was appointed as the Prime Minister’s Principal Private Secretary in January 2016. He is also the UK Sherpa for the G7 and the G20. Previously Simon was Director of Strategy at GCHQ.
Alex Chisholm - Category Champion for The Diversity & Inclusion Award
Alex Chisholm became Chief Operating Officer for the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary for the Cabinet Office in April 2020. Prior to that he was the Permanent Secretary to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Mike Driver - Category Champion for The Collaboration Award
Mike joined the Department of Health & Social Security in 1979 straight from school, and spent his first 6 years in the Civil Service delivering services to customers. He then moved into regional management and thereafter fulfilled a range of policy and finance roles. He is a CIPFA qualified accountant, and has held a variety of FD roles, both corporate and operational. He was promoted to Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at the Department for Work & Pensions in 2012. From 1st April 2016, he was appointed the CFO for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and on 1st June July 2017 also became the Head of the Government Finance Function, HM Treasury, where he is driving the agenda to substantially strengthen the finance function’s critical role at the heart of government, ensuring better political and business outcomes.
Tamara Finkelstein - Category Champion for The Resilience & Rapid Response Award
Tamara Finkelstein was appointed Permanent Secretary at Defra on 19 June 2019. She was formerly Director General for EU Exit Delivery at Defra from April 2018 to March 2019. Before that, she was leading the Building Safety Programme in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Elizabeth Gardiner - Category Champion for The Developing People Award
Elizabeth Gardiner took up the post of First Parliamentary Counsel and Permanent Secretary of the Government in Parliament Group in the Cabinet Office on 24 November 2015.
She joined the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel as an Assistant Parliamentary Counsel in 1991, and has spent over 20 years as a legislative drafter working on a full range of legislative projects. This included working on consolidation and law reform projects at the Law Commission and leading the team drafting tax legislation.
Sue Gray - Category Champion for The Citizenship Award
Sue transferred from the Cabinet Office to take up the role of Permanent Secretary in the Department of Finance in May 2018. The Department of Finance is responsible for managing the public expenditure of NICS departments and supporting the appropriate allocation of the funding available from HM Treasury. It also provides a range of corporate services to NICS Departments, including HR, finance, ICT, legal and statistical services, accommodation and estate management.
Jim Harra - Category Champion for The Commercial Award
Jim began his career in the Inland Revenue as an Inspector of Taxes in 1984. In January 2009, he was appointed Director of Corporation Tax and VAT, responsible for optimising the design and delivery of these business taxes.
Jim became Director of Personal Tax Customer Operations in March 2011, and Director Personal Tax Operations in October 2011. He was appointed Director General Business Tax on 16 April 2012. Jim took up the post as HMRC’s Second Permanent Secretary and Deputy Chief Executive on 1 January 2018.
Jim was appointed as HMRC’s First Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive in October 2019.
Sarah Healey - Category Champion for The Digital, Data & Technology Award
Sarah Healey has been Permanent Secretary of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) since April 2019.
Prior to this, she worked in the Cabinet Office where she was the Director General overseeing the development and implementation of economic and domestic policy following two and a half years working on negotiations and preparations for the UK to leave the EU.
Stephen Lovegrove - Category Champion for The Project Delivery Excellence Award
Stephen became Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) in April 2016. Prior to MOD he was Permanent Secretary for Department of Energy & Climate Change.
Stephen spent 9 years at the Shareholder Executive and was appointed Chief Executive in June 2007. Before that he spent 10 years at Deutsche Bank, where he was the head of the European media team working on a wide range of capital raisings, acquisitions and divestments in all the sub-sectors of the media industry.
Dame Shan Morgan - Category Champion for The Inspirational Leadership Award
Shan took up post as Welsh Government Permanent Secretary in February 2017.
Shan’s early career focussed on employment and social affairs policy. After graduating in French from Kent University in 1977, she joined the Employment Department, working on youth and adult employment policy and on vocational education and training programmes in the Manpower Services Commission. Shan was seconded to the European Commission in Brussels (DG Employment & Social Affairs) from 1984 – 1987 to work on long term unemployment policy and local economic development (the LEDA programme). On return to the UK, she held a variety of posts in the Employment Department, dealing with labour market policy, including in the National Training Task Force and the Government Office for London.
Sarah Munby - Category Champion for The Innovation Award
Sarah Munby became Permanent Secretary for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on 20 July 2020.
Sarah joined BEIS in July 2019 as Director General, Business Sectors. Before that, Sarah worked at Mckinsey, where she led their Strategy and Corporate Finance practice in the UK and Ireland. Sarah began her career in the Civil Service, as an Assistant Economist in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Antonia Romeo - Category Champion for The Rising Star Award
Antonia Romeo became the Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Trade (DIT) in March 2017. DIT has responsibility for trade policy, trade negotiation and market access arrangements with countries outside the EU, global trade promotion and finance, inward and outward business investment, and the GREAT Campaign.
Prior to this, Antonia was Her Majesty’s Consul General in New York and Director General Economic and Commercial Affairs USA, and Special Envoy to the US technology companies, based in New York.
Peter Schofield - Category Champion for The Public Service Award
Peter became the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions on 16 January 2018. Prior to this, he has worked as Director General for Finance at DWP from July 2016 and as Director General for Housing and Planning at the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Sir Patrick Vallance - Category Champion for The Science Award
Sir Patrick Vallance FRS FMedSci FRCP is Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA) and Head of the Government Science and Engineering (GSE) profession. His personal research was in the area of diseases of blood vessels and endothelial biology.
Patrick was President, R&D at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) from 2012 until 2017. Prior to this, he was Senior Vice President, Medicines Discovery and Development. He joined the company in May 2006 as Head of Drug Discovery. He was a member of the GSK Board and the Corporate Executive Team. During his period as head of R&D over 14 new medicines were approved for use worldwide, for diseases ranging from cancer to asthma and HIV.