Mike Rowe
Biography
Mike Rowe is Director for Marine and Fisheries in Defra, a role which sits at the heart of the Government’s vision of achieving clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse ocean and seas.
Mike has been in the department for over 20 years and took up this posting on 1 February 2021. His previous role was Director for EU and International Trade in Defra where he was responsible for overseeing and coordinating all of Defra’s interests in the Trade and Co-operation Agreement negotiations with the EU. He also led the strand of those negotiations related to a new Fisheries Framework Agreement on behalf of the UK.
Prior to that, Mike was Defra’s Principal Private Secretary from June 2017 to October 2019, a role which saw him serve Michael Gove and Theresa Villiers and their Ministerial teams during their tenures as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
From 2016-2017, Mike was the Deputy Director responsible for leading work post the EU Referendum on designing Future Agriculture Policy in preparation for exiting the EU and the Common Agricultural Policy. This culminated in the inclusion of an Agriculture Bill in the 2017 Queen’s Speech. From 2014-16 he was Deputy Director for environmental land management policy and farming statistics. Before joining the Senior Civil Service in 2014 he was head of Private Office for 5 different junior Defra Ministers and also led work within Defra on GM Crops, Public Bodies Reform and Rural Development policy.
Non-executive Director, Cefas
- Non-executive director of corporate management board