Director General, Strategy and Investment in the Department for Business and Trade (DBT)

Policy Leaders Fellow, Centre for Science and Policy

Ceri Smith became Director General, Strategy and Investment in the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) in February 2023. From April 2021 he was Director General, Strategy and Investment at the Department for International Trade (DIT).

He joined DIT after 8 years at UK Government Investments where, amongst other things, he set up the British Business Bank, and led on the government’s shareholder interests in Channel 4, the Land Registry, Homes England and the Ordnance Survey. He was a Non-Executive Director at the British Business Bank and a Non-Executive member of the Homes England Board.

Ceri previously spent almost 20 years across a range of economic policy roles in HM Treasury and the Business Department, in Brussels with the Foreign Office and with the DTI’s Small Business Service.

Ceri is a former Trustee of the MS Society and a current governor of Camden School for Girls.