Dave Ramsden

Sir David Ramsden

Sir David Edward John Ramsden CBE (born 9 February 1964) is a senior British civil servant, and the former Chief Economic Adviser to HM Treasury. He is the Head of the Government Economic Service, having previously served as Joint Head of the Service with Vicky Pryce, formerly Chief Economic Adviser and Director-General at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Ramsden joined the Civil Service in 1986 before joining the Treasury in 1988. He has worked on a wide range of economic policy issues, including monetary policy, fiscal and tax policy, the public finances, the business sector and labour markets.

Between 1999 and 2003, Ramsden led the Treasury’s work on whether the UK should join the Euro for which he was appointed CBE. He worked on tax administration and policy issues from 2003 until 2006.

In June 2007, Ramsden joined the Treasury Board and in 2008 he was appointed Chief Economic Adviser. He became Joint Head of the Government Economic Service, the largest single recruiter of economists in the UK, from 2007; sole Head in 2010. In January 2013 he became Chair of the Treasury’s Diversity Board.

Ramsden is a trustee of Pro-Bono Economics, a charity whose aim is to broker economists into the charitable sector to help on short and medium-term assignments, typically addressing questions around measurement, results and impact. He is also President of the Society of Business Economists. He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford and graduated from the London School of Economics with an MSc Economics in 1990.

He was knighted in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to economic policy making. In 2015 he also became a Visiting Professor at King's College London.