WIG Annual Interview 2025

Sir Chris Wormald was appointed Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service in December 2024.

Before this he served as Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health (now Department of Health and Social Care). He has also served as Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education.

Sir Chris joined the Civil Service in 1991 as a fast streamer at the (then) Department of Education and Science. He has worked in a range of posts on education policy, including spells as Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State, as well as at the Department for Communities and Local Government (now Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government) as Director General for Local Government and Regeneration. He has also previously held roles in the Cabinet Office including as Director General of Public Service Reform, Head of the Economic and Domestic Secretariat and Director General in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office.

Michelle Mitchell OBE joined in November 2018. She is responsible for the overall leadership and management of CRUK, the world’s leading cancer charity, dedicated to saving and improving lives with its research.

Since taking the helm, Michelle has helped put CRUK on a strong footing to achieve its vision of bringing about a world where everybody lives longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer. Having navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, she set the organisation on an ambitious new course with the launch of its long-term strategy in 2022. In the three years since, Michelle has led the charity in delivering some of the strongest impact and financial performances in its history.

Michelle is a senior voluntary sector leader who has transformed a number of not-for-profit organisations to better their purpose and global impact. She has a successful track record of delivering long term value, collaboration and innovation.

She is a trustee of The Francis Crick Institute and member of the General Advisory Council for The King’s Fund.

Before joining Cancer Research UK, Michelle was CEO of the MS Society for five years and a founding member of the Progressive MS Alliance: a global scientific and research joint venture and launched the STOP MS £100m appeal. Prior to that, she was Director General at Age UK, the UK’s largest older people’s charity where she worked for nearly a decade and was at the forefront of national debates on health, care and welfare.

Michelle has extensive non-executive experience, which has included NED at NHS England. She contributes to steering groups for the Department for Health and Social Care’s National Cancer Plan and 10-Year Health Plan for England. Michelle has a BA in Economics, an MA in Politics and Public Administration and an International Executive Diploma from INSEAD. She is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Cambridge’s Homerton College.

Michelle was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to the charity sector.

Tom Wilcock is the Managing Director for Arup's UK, India, Middle East and Africa (UKIMEA) business. He leads more than 6,000 members in 27 offices delivering the full range of property, transport, energy, water, science and technology, master planning, sustainability and strategic design and advisory services across the region.

In his time at Arup, Tom has pioneered the application of experiential design in structural engineering and developed custom simulations that mimic the movement of buildings and bridges. With a background in numerical analysis, he has seen first-hand the power of digital tools to transform the built environment. They have been central to his work delivering specialist structures from transport infrastructure to renewable energy installations and super high-rise buildings.

Tom founded Arup’s advanced technology and research practice in New York, to drive innovation in the built environment. He was also instrumental in setting up the digital and venturing businesses in the Americas, engaging with start-ups and developing non-traditional revenue models.