Clive Maxwell was appointed Second Permanent Secretary at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in February 2023. Previously, he held the position of Director General, High Speed and Major Rail Projects at the Department for Transport since 2017. In this role, he was the senior responsible owner and sponsor for the High Speed 2 programme and was responsible at executive committee level for the department’s work on a number of other major rail projects (including East West Rail, Northern Powerhouse Rail and Crossrail 2). He is a member of the department’s executive committee and board.

Before this, he spent three years in BEIS as Director General of Energy Transformation, responsible for the policies and delivery programmes driving reductions in energy consumption. His group included the Energy Efficiency Deployment Office, heat and industry, Green Deal, smart meters and fuel poverty.

Previously, Clive was Chief Executive at the Office of Fair Trading from July 2012, after being on its board as an Executive Director and previously working as OFT Senior Director, Services Sector. Prior to joining the OFT, he worked in a wide range of roles for HM Treasury from 1992-2009. He led work responding to the financial crisis in 2007-2009, and worked on financial markets and regulation there from 2002.

Clive has represented the UK in numerous international and EU fora, including the European Competition Network and the EU’s Financial Services Committee, of which he was Vice-Chairman from 2008-2009.