The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has named charity boss Paul Kissack as its next permanent secretary.
Kissack has been group chief executive at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for the past five years. However, his appointment to succeed Dame Tamara Finkelstein at the top of Defra is very much a return to the civil service.
Kissack has held a range of senior roles in government. Most recently, he served as director general for strategy and change at Defra from September 2019 to July 2020. Part of that time was spent on secondment at the Department of Health and Social Care during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Earlier in his career, Kissack held director general roles at the Cabinet Office and the Department for Education. He was also principal private secretary to then-cabinet secretary Gus O’Donnell from May 2010 to July 2011 and head of communications for then-chancellor Gordon Brown from May 2005 to July 2006.
Kissack spent just over two years as a senior civil servant in New Zealand between 2017 and 2019, holding deputy chief executive roles at the Ministry for Children.
Environment secretary Steve Reed said he was “delighted” to welcome Kissack to the department.
“His experience and expertise will ensure we achieve our objectives as a government,” he said. “I look forward to working with him to make our country a better place.”
Cabinet secretary Sir Chris Wormald said Kissack's experience of public service delivery in the UK and New Zealand, and his leadership of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, made him “excellently suited to lead Defra” and drive delivery of the department’s missions.
Kissack said he was “delighted” to be rejoining the civil service and “honoured” to be returning to Defra.
“Restoring the natural environment and enhancing the sustainable use of natural resources – through cleaner water, greener land, purer air and reduced waste – is fundamental to a strong economy and delivering the Plan for Change,” he said.
“And the work of the Defra Group – from food security to bio-security to flood defences – is critical to ensuring our national resilience and protecting the public. I am hugely looking forward to working with colleagues across the Defra Group, across government and the many stakeholders who share these ambitions for our country in the years ahead.”
Kissack is due to take up his new role in October. David Hill is currently serving as interim perm sec, following Finkelstein’s departure in June.