Dame Helen Ghosh worked in the civil service for more than 30 years, including time in the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Cabinet Office, HM Revenue and Customs, and the Department for Work and Pensions.
From 2005-2010, she was Permanent Secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and from 2010, Permanent Secretary at the Home Office. While working as a civil servant, she was particularly interested in social exclusion and urban regeneration policies, and in a variety of local and global environmental issues.
Leaving the Civil Service in 2012, she became Director General of the National Trust, and in 2018 took up her role as Master of Balliol at University of Oxford. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Bath in 2008.
She is a Trustee of the Ashmolean Museum, the Oxford Preservation Trust and the Blackfriars Overseas Aid Trust, among other organisations.
Helen has recently taken over as Chair of the Conference of Colleges in Oxford, and is one of the University representatives on the Oxford University Property Development board, a joint venture with Legal & General.