Mr. Adam Sharples

 Director General – Employment
Department for Work and Pensions,
United Kingdom

Adam has been Director General for Employment in the Department for Work and Pensions since April 2009. He leads a group of 750 staff who are responsible for design and delivery of employment programmes and reducing child poverty. This includes advising on:

• the labour market and the Government’s response to rising unemployment;
• welfare to work programmes such as the New Deal and Pathways to Work;
• commissioning these programmes from private and third sector providers;
• strategies to reduce child poverty and sponsorship of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (the successor to the Child Support Agency).
  

Over the previous four years he was Director General for Work, Welfare and Equality which included responsibility for welfare benefits and disability rights.

Before joining DWP, Adam worked for the Inland Revenue for a year as International Director and for the Treasury for 15 years in a variety of roles including Director of Public Spending. Before joining the civil service in 1988, Adam headed the Research Department of the National Union of Public Employees, now part of Unison, and worked as an economist for a political party.

Adam has a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and an MSc in Economics.