Graham has been Chief Executive of the Better Regulation
Executive, a unit within the Department for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy, since 2011. He has a BA
and a PhD in Particle Physics from Cambridge University
for theoretical work on collision experiments at CERN. He
also holds a diploma in public administration from the
École Nationale d’Administration (ENA).
Graham has extensive experience across Whitehall and at a
European level – a key priority for the Agency’s head. He
has worked in the European Commission and held several
other posts in the UK Civil Service with a strong
European element, including the Treasury’s lead on the EU
budget.
Recently he has been the BEIS representative on the Met
Office board while outside of work he is a trustee of the
Youth Hostels Association and a keen cyclist.
As the UK Space Agency’s Chief Executive Graham will lead
a team of more than 100 who manage the UK’s civil space
policy, regulation and programmes. He will be responsible
for realising the agency’s aims of increasing the size of
the UK space industry, using space to understand planet
Earth and the universe, supporting British businesses to
deliver practical help to developing countries and
overseeing the Agency’s plans to establish commercial
space flight in the UK.
Graham will take up his new role on the 1st of April. He
replaces Interim Chief Executive Katherine Courtney, who
has been with the Agency since April, 2016. During her
time Katherine guided the Agency through the European
Council of Ministers in Lucerne, Switzerland, where the
UK committed to European collaboration on science and
exploration, satellite technology and services,
allocating more than €1.4 billion over five years to
European Space Agency programmes.
Katherine also led the Agency at a key time for
commercial spaceflight in the UK, inviting commercial
space consortia to apply for grant funding to enable
small-satellite launches and sub-orbital flights from the
UK by 2020.
