Jeremy Heywood

Heywood was born on 31 December 1961 in Glossop, Derbyshire, England.[4] His parents were Peter Heywood and Brenda Swinbank,[5][6][7] who met as teachers at Ackworth School in West Yorkshire, one of a few Quaker educational establishments in England.

Heywood was educated at the independent Quaker Bootham School in York, where his father taught English.[8] He studied history and economics at Hertford College, Oxford (where he was later made an Honorary Fellow), graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1983, and economics at the London School of Economics, graduating with a Master of Science (MSc) degree in 1986.[9] He also attended the Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School in 1994.[4]

From 1983 to 1984, Heywood worked as an economist at the Health and Safety Executive, before moving to the Treasury,[10] and became the Principal Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer then Norman Lamont at the age of 30, having to help mitigate the fallout from Black Wednesday after less than a month in the job.[11] He remained in this role throughout the 1990s under Chancellors Kenneth Clarke and Gordon Brown. He was economic and domestic policy secretary to Tony Blair from 1997 to 1998,[10] before being promoted to be the Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1999. He stayed in this position until 2003, when he left the civil service in the wake of the Hutton Inquiry where it emerged that he said he had never minuted meetings in the Prime Ministerial offices about David Kelly, a job he was required to do.

He became a managing director of the UK Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley where he was embroiled in the aftermath of the collapse of Southern Cross Healthcare.[12] Upon Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister in 2007, Heywood returned to government as Head of Domestic Policy and Strategy at the Cabinet Office.

He later resumed the post of Principal Private Secretary, as well as being appointed the Downing Street Chief of Staff after the resignation of Stephen Carter.[13] In 2010, after David Cameron became Prime Minister, Heywood was replaced as Chief of Staff by Edward Llewellyn and as Principal Private Secretary by James Bowler.[14] He returned to the civil service and was subsequently appointed the first Downing Street Permanent Secretary, a role created for the purpose of liaising between the Cabinet Secretary and the Chief of Staff within the Cabinet Office.[15]

Heywood was diagnosed with lung cancer in June 2017 and took a leave of absence from his position in June 2018 owing to his illness.[3][20] He retired on health grounds on 24 October 2018.[21]

Over a week later, he died on 4 November 2018, aged 56.[22][20]

In 1997, Heywood married Suzanne Cook. Together they had three children, including twins.[4] Suzanne is a former civil servant who moved into the private sector: she has been managing director of the Exor Group since 2016 and chair of CNH Industrial since 2018.[23][24]

Heywood was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2002 New Year Honours,[25] and a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 2003.[26] He was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2012 New Year Honours, and was thereby granted the title Sir.[27][28] The Parliamentary Public Administration Committee cited the example of Heywood's knighthood as an automatic honour granted due to his position.[29] He was promoted to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 31 October 2018.[30][31]

On Heywood's retirement as Cabinet Secretary on 24 October 2018, the Prime Minister Theresa May nominated him for a life peerage in recognition of his distinguished service to public life.[21] He was created Baron Heywood of Whitehall, of Glossop in the County of Derbyshire on 26 October 2018,[32] shortly before his death.[33][34][35]

• Profile from The Guardian
• Profile from the Financial Times