Ruth Thompson

Ruth Thompson (4 July 1953 – 9 July 2016) was a British civil servant who was director of finance (2000–03) and then of Higher Education (2003–06) at the Department of Education and Skills.

Early life and education Ruth Thompson was born on 4 July 1953, the daughter of the academic historian Arthur Frederick "Pat" Thompson (1920–2009) and his wife Mary, née Barritt, a lecturer in botany. She graduated from Somerville College, Oxford, with a bachelor of arts (BA) degree in modern history, before completing a doctorate (DPhil) at St Antony's College, Oxford, in 1978. and also a member of the Audit Commission (2013–15), and in 2014 co-chaired the Higher Education Commission's inquiry into financing higher education; she emphasised the positives that free higher education could provide for British research. The Times wrote that Thompson was a "distinguished" civil servant, who "was renowned for being direct and fair."

Personal life, family and interests Thompson's appointment as a director of Fusion Lifestyle in 2011 reflected her love for swimming (she frequented Brockwell Park Lido); she also sat on the board of Moat Homes Limited and London TravelWatch after leaving the civil service. She was a keen traveller, visiting over 40 countries and learning Spanish while studying for her doctoral thesis in Buenos Aires. In 2004 she married the judge Sir David Michael Bean, whom she met while on a walking trip. They had no children, although she was step-mother to her husband's two sons. She died from cancer on 9 July 2016.