Education
Lowcock attended Culford School in Suffolk before attending Oxford University, where he graduated with a degree in Economics and History.
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Mark Lowcock
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Since June 2011, he has served as the Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Development (Department for International Development). He was later awarded a Master’s degree in Economics from Birkbeck College, University of London, before moving to Boston to study economics and business as a graduate fellowship Lowcock joined Department for International Development (formerly the Overseas Development Administration) in 1985, where he has occupied a diverse range of roles, including: • Private Secretary to Baroness Chalker, Minister for Overseas Development from 1992 to 1994 • Deputy Head and Head of the Department for International Development Regional Office for Central Africa from 1994 to 1997 • Head of European Union Department from 1997 to 1999, before returning to Africa as Head of the Department for International Development Regional Office for East Africa • Director, Finance and Corporate Performance, from 2001 to 2003 and Director General, Corporate Performance and Knowledge Sharing from 2003 to 2006 • Director General, Policy and International from 2006 to 2008 and Director General, Country Programmes from 2008 to 2011
Lowcock was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Development on 9 June 2011.
He has made speeches on development, in Delhi (on the future of international development), Karachi (on how to get economic growth in a changing world), Berlin (on development agencies and conflict) and Addis Ababa (on economic development in Ethiopia).
As of 2015, Lowcock was paid a salary of between £160,000 and £164,999 by the department, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time. Lowcock oversaw the Department during the period in which the United Kingdom increased its aid budget to 0.7% of Gross Domestic Product.
World leaders first pledged to meet the 0.7% target 35 years ago in a 1970 General Assembly Resolution.
Membership
He is a qualified accountant and a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.
