Rodney Anderson
Rodney’s early career was spent in local government working in a range of roles with Watford, Rickmansworth, Wandsworth and Camden councils. After a period on secondment to what was then the Department of Environment, he became a team leader helping to manage a highly innovative housing programme which gave him his first experience of policy making in relation to housing subsidy allowances. In 1997 Rodney moved to the then newly-created Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions to manage a finance department which led to a further promotion in 2000 to become Head of Water Supply and Regulation at Defra with a brief to help develop a policy framework to modernise the economic regulation of the water industry. This led to further policy making responsibilities as Director of Marine and Fisheries at Defra in 2004.
In this role he was a key figure behind the establishment of the Marine and Fisheries Agency, and then the creation of the MMO and its mission to provide an integrated approach to marine management encompassing marine biodiversity, marine environmental issues and fisheries. In 2008 he retired from the civil service having had the chance to play a key part in preparing the Marine Act. He then set up his own freelance consulting business.