Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown is the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010 and is widely credited with preventing a second Great Depression through his stewardship of the 2009 London G20 summit. He was one of the first leaders during the global crisis to initiate calls for global financial action, while introducing a range of rescue measures in the UK. In April 2009, he hosted the G20 Summit in London where world leaders committed to make an additional $1.1 trillion available to help the world economy through the crisis and restore credit, growth and jobs.  They also pledged to strengthen financial supervision and regulation.

Previously, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007, making him the longest-serving Chancellor in modern history. During ten years at the Treasury, Gordon masterminded many of Labour’s proudest achievements including the Minimum Wage, Sure Start, the Winter Fuel Allowance, the Child Trust Fund, the Child Tax Credit and paid paternity leave. His record on global justice includes his negotiation of debt cancellation for the world’s poorest nations and the tripling of the budget for life-saving aid. His time as Chancellor was also marked by major reform of Britain’s monetary and fiscal policy as well as the sustained investment in health, education and overseas aid.

His role in government continued to shape his views on the importance of education as a fundamental right of every child in the world and the key to unlocking better health, greater social stability, more rights and opportunities for women and a higher standard of living. He is a passionate advocate for global action to ensure education for all and has served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Global Education since July 2012. He works closely with key partners to help galvanise support for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 to achieve quality, relevance, and inclusive education and learning for every child. He currently serves as the Chair of the International Commission for Financing Global Education Opportunity (The Education Commission) that has engaged world leaders, policy makers and researchers to develop and present a renewed and compelling investment case and financing pathway for global education. Its report entitled The Learning Generation was published in 2016. He is Chair of the Global Commission on Financing Global Education, Chair of the Inquiry on Protecting Children in Conflict and also serves as Distinguished Global Leader in Residence of New York University.

Gordon is the author of several books including Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalisation; My Scotland, Our Britain: A Future Worth Sharing; and Britain: Leading Not Leaving – The Patriotic Case for Remaining in Europe.

Gordon has a PhD in History from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as a lecturer. He is married to Sarah (Macaulay) Brown, and the couple live in Fife, Scotland with their two sons, John and Fraser.