Sharon White (chief executive)

Sharon White
Chief Executive of Ofcom
In office March 2015 – In office
Preceded by	Ed Richards
Personal details
Born	Sharon Michele White 21 April 1967 (age 50) East London
Nationality	British
Spouse(s)	Robert Chote
Alma mater	University of Cambridge; University College London
Profession	Economist

Sharon Michele White (born 21 April 1967) is a British civil servant. She had a variety of roles in the British civil service, and was Second Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury from 2013 to 2015. She has been the chief executive of the British media regulator Ofcom since March 2015. She was the first black person, and the second woman, to become a Permanent Secretary at the Treasury.

White was born in east London and brought up in Leyton where she attended a comprehensive school. Her parents emigrated to the UK from Jamaica in the 1950s, when her father was aged 15 and her mother 11. White attended Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, from where she received a BA degree in economics. She later earned an MSc in economics from University College London.

White worked for a church in Birmingham before joining the British civil service in 1989. She worked first at the Treasury and later for the British embassy in Washington which was also where she met her husband Robert Chote. She also worked at the 10 Downing Street policy unit during the Blair government, at the World Bank, and as a director general at the Department for International Development in 2003-9 and then at the Ministry of Justice in 2009-11, and also at the Department for Work and Pensions.

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