Dr Wendy Piatt
Director General
Dr Wendy Piatt is the first director general of the Russell Group of universities, appointed to set up an organisation providing strategic direction, policy development underpinned by research and communications for the 20 major research-intensive universities in the UK. She was previously deputy director and head of public service reform at the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit where she has also led work on social mobility, local government, education and skills and digital inclusion. Prior to that, she was head of education policy at the Institute for Public Policy Research, specialising in higher and further education.
She has written numerous reports on education policy including Opportunity for Whom? The funding & structure of post-16 education (2001) – which was widely considered to have influenced government policy on the funding of further and higher education. As a result she was seconded to the Department for Education and Skills to work on the White Paper, The Future of Higher Education (2003). She was also responsible for The UK Government's Approach to Public Service Reform (2006) which constituted the first official account of the Government's overarching strategy for public service reform.
She has published numerous articles in national newspapers and journals and frequently appears in the broadcast media.
She has a Master's degree and a Doctorate in Political Philosophy and Literature from Lincoln College, University of Oxford, and a first degree in English from King’s College, London.