Adam Sharples

Adam John Sharples, CB, FRSA (born 1954) is a British executive, and former civil servant and economist.

Early life and education Born in 1954, Sharples attended Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in the early 1970s; there he formed a rock band with Mark Ellen, with whom he had attended Winchester College, called Ugly Rumours; following auditions in late 1974, they invited Tony Blair to be their singer but the group disbanded after three performances. Sharples graduated from Oxford in 1975 and completed a master's degree in economics at Queen Mary College, University of London, in 1977.

Civil service Sharples entered HM Civil Service in 1988 as a principal in HM Treasury.

Sharples was promoted at the Treasury, eventually serving as Director of Public Spending from 1998 to 2003. He spent a year at the Board of Inland Revenue as Director for International and then joined the Department for Work and Pensions in 2004 as Director-General of the Work, Welfare and the Equality Group; in 2009, this position was abolished and he became Director-General for Employment, serving until 2011, when he left the civil service.