Rob Varley has been chief executive of the Met Office since 2014.
He was educated at Cheltenham Bournside School and graduated from the University of East Anglia with a BSc in Environmental Sciences in 1983. Varley is the first CEO to be promoted from within the Met Office since its founding in 1854. He holds a postgraduate diploma in Management from the University of Reading (2001), and a diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors (2010). He received an honorary doctorate of science from the University of East Anglia in 2016.