Glen Watson

Glen was appointed Director General on 1 October 2012, following five years as the England and Wales Census Director.

He took on responsibility for the 2011 England and Wales Census in October 2007 and joined the ONS Executive Management Group in February 2008. As Senior Responsible Owner for the Census, Glen was responsible for all aspects of the design, planning and delivery of the largest project undertaken anywhere in the UK statistical system.

Glen moved to ONS in 2004 as Programme Director for Neighbourhood Statistics where he developed a keen interest in small area social and demographic statistics. Other ONS roles have included responsibility for health statistics, population and demography, regional and local statistics, social analysis and reporting, and ONS outputs from the various business and household surveys.

Glen started his career in the insurance industry before joining the civil service and spending over ten years in the Defence Analytical Services Agency in a variety of roles including military workforce planning, economic analysis, procurement and logistics support, health statistics and corporate information systems.

He is a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and a chartered statistician, with particular interests in project / programme management and statistical delivery.