Barber, Michael, 1955-

Michael Bayldon Barber, Baron Barber of Chittlehampton (born 24 November 1955) is a British former civil servant and educationist known for serving as head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit under Tony Blair’s government. He is the founder of Delivery Associates, a global advisory firm. He has advised governments in over 60 countries on issues of public policy and delivery. He was the founder and first head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit under Prime Minister Tony Blair, and later served as chief education advisor at Pearson, and as a partner at McKinsey, where he was head of the global education practice. He served as co-chair of Boston Consulting Group's not-for-profit foundation, the Centre for Public Impact. Barber published How to Run a Government: So that Citizens Benefit and Taxpayers Don’t go Crazy in 2015, and his second book, Accomplishment – How to achieve ambitious and challenging things, was published by Penguin in 2021. In 2021, he was asked by the UK Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary to conduct a review of government delivery after COVID-19. In January 2022, Barber was appointed Chancellor of the University of Exeter. In April 2022, Barber was announced as the new chairman of Somerset County Cricket Club. In December 2024, he was appointed Prime Minister Keir Starmer's envoy to the Palestinian Authority for governance.