Sir John Elvidge
Former Permanent Secretary, Scottish Government
Sir John Elvidge was Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government from 2003 - 10, following a Civil Service career which included periods as Deputy Head of the Economic and Domestic Secretariat to the UK Cabinet and as Head of the Scottish Executive Education Department and Head of the Scottish Executive Finance and Central Services Department.
Following his retirement from the Civil Service he worked with the OECD, as an expert advisor on country studies and contributor to work on organisational change in governments, and with national and regional schools of government in China, where he is an Adjunct Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He has also worked with the Institute for Government, on study of devolution, and with the Northern Ireland Executive, on its approach to future programmes for government and on civil service reform. He was an associate of the Carnegie UK Trust, writing its publications on the Enabling State, and subsequently a trustee and, from 2018 - 22, chair of the board of trustees.
He has been chair of the board of Edinburgh Airport Ltd since 2012 and has been a member since 2021 of the supervisory board of the government owned company responsible for Estonia’s airports network. He has chaired the board of trustees for the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and has been a member of the boards of trustees for the Edinburgh International Festival and for Scottish Opera.
There is a pressing need for the Centre for Public Policy within Scotland and across the constituent parts of the UK. I am confident that it can become an internationally recognised source of public policy thinking and professional development for those who work in public service.