Nicholas Macpherson

The Right Honourable The Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court GCB
Macpherson in December 2014
Permanent Secretary of HM Treasury
In office 2005–2016
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Tony Blair Gordon Brown David Cameron
Chancellor	Gordon Brown Alastair Darling George Osborne
Preceded by	Sir Gus O'Donnell
Succeeded by	Tom Scholar
Personal details
Born	1959 (age 57–58)
Education	Eton College
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford University College, London

Nicholas Ian Macpherson, Baron Macpherson of Earl's Court, GCB (born 1959) is a former senior British civil servant. He served as the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury from 2005 to 2016.

Macpherson was Permanent Secretary to three Chancellors. He managed the department through the financial and wider economic crisis which began in 2007.

Macpherson was nominated for a crossbench peerage in David Cameron's 2016 resignation Honours, and joined the House of Lords on 4 October 2016.

He was educated at Eton College, where he won the Newcastle Medal, coming second in the examination for the Newcastle Scholarship in 1977. He later attended Balliol College, Oxford (where he read Modern History) and University College London.

Macpherson first worked as an economist at the CBI and Peat Marwick Consulting.

Macpherson entered HM Treasury in 1985. From 1993 to 1997, he was Principal Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer; he oversaw the transition from Kenneth Clarke to Gordon Brown as Chancellor. From 1998 to 2001, he was Director of Welfare Reform. From 2001 to 2004, he was head of the Public Services Directorate, where he managed the 2000 and 2002 spending reviews. From 2004 to 2005 Macpherson managed the Budget and Public Finance Directorate, where he was responsible for tax policy and the budget process.

Macpherson succeeded Sir (now Lord) Gus O'Donnell as Permanent Secretary of the Treasury, when the latter moved to be the Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service in 2005. Macpherson came to prominence during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum when he advised George Osborne against entering into a currency union with any Scottish independent state, which was contrary to initial Scottish National Party plans. He stepped down from the Treasury on 31 March 2016.