Ed Mayo

Mayo was educated at Downing College, Cambridge – reading philosophy – and City University Business School. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the London Metropolitan University in 2007.

After a short period as a management consultant at Andersen Consulting, Mayo joined the World Development Movement, serving as acting director until 1992.

Mayo rose to prominence as director of the New Economics Foundation (NEF) from 1992 to 2003. He led NEF from two to fifty staff, creating the leading 'think-and-do tank', looking at ethical market activity, local economies and public service reform. NHS Foundation Trusts were an idea partly inspired by NEF and Mayo, particularly his October 2001 pamphlet, The Mutual State, published with Mutuo, a think tank set up by the Co-operative Party. NEF also co-ordinated the Jubilee 2000 campaign during this time, for which Mayo was the strategist. It gained 24 million signatures for the worldwide petition on development and poverty.

In 2003, he left to become chief executive of the National Consumer Council, staying with the organisation for 5 years. In 2008, the National Consumer Council merged with energywatch and Postwatch to form Consumer Focus, a move which Mayo oversaw as he became chief executive of the new organisation. In July 2009, he announced that he would be resigning to take up the position of Secretary General of Co-operatives UK following the retirement of its chief executive, Dame Pauline Green. He took up the position officially the following November.