Sir Michael Barber

Sir Michael Barber (born 24 November 1955) is a British educationist and Founder and Chairman of Delivery Associates. In the past, Barber served as a partner and head of the global education practice at McKinsey, advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair and a global expert on education reform and implementation of large-scale system change. He has worked for over 20 years in education and government reform and improvement. Sir Michael currently serves as Co-Chair of Boston Consulting Group’s not-for-profit foundation, Centre for Public Impact

Barber was educated at Bootham School,York, an independent school with a Quaker background and ethos. He read History at the University of Oxford before training as a teacher. He taught in schools in Britain and Zimbabwe.

Barber worked in the education department of the National Union of Teachers. As a member of the Labour Party, he was elected to the council of the London Borough of Hackney, becoming chair of the education committee. In 1987 he contested for Labour the seat of Henley-on-Thames, then held by Michael Heseltine.

Barber served as Chief Adviser to the Secretary of State for Education on School Standards during the first term of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

During Blair’s second term, from 2001 to 2005, Barber served as the Chief Adviser on Delivery, reporting directly to Prime Minister Tony Blair. As head of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU), he was responsible for working with government agencies to ensure successful implementation of the Prime Minister’s priority programs, including those in health, education, transport, policing, the criminal justice system, and asylum/immigration. He wrote a book about his experience in the PMDU, Instruction to Deliver: Fighting to Reform Britain’s Public Services (Metheun 2008), which was described by the Financial Times as “one of the best books about British Government for many years”.

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