Gillian McGregor CBE

Biography

Gillian McGregor took up post as Director on 12 October 2017. Prior to that she has held various roles in the Home Office since 1985 starting as an immigration caseworker in Croydon. Most recently, in May 2013, she was appointed Director for Immigration Enforcement in Scotland and Northern Ireland based in Glasgow. As well as managing enforcement teams of around 120 staff Gillian has held an additional representational role in Scotland on a range of Home Office issues including immigration, asylum and counter-terrorism. She has also completed a six month secondment as temporary Chief of Staff to Patsy Wilkinson, the newly appointed Second Permanent Secretary in the Home Office.

Previous to that Gillian has spent the majority of her career in immigration and counter-terrorism roles in the Home Office in London and also spent 3 years on secondment to the Cabinet Office in the 1990s. From 2001 onwards she spent 8 years working in counter-terrorism roles including VIP and Royal Security, Critical Infrastructure Protection and Crisis Management. In 2007 she had a central role in creating the Office for Security & Counter Terrorism (OSCT), forming it into a successful cross-government hub for work on terrorism and serious crime. In 2009 she took up post as Principal Private Secretary to the Home Secretary and managed the transition of Home Secretaries from the Labour to Coalition Government working for Alan Johnson then Theresa May during that time. After nearly two years in the PPS role she moved to Immigration Enforcement in 2011 as the Director of Intelligence leading a team of around 500 staff, including teams working overseas.
Gillian was brought up in the north-east of Scotland and was educated at Montrose Academy and Aberdeen University. She was awarded the CBE in the 2016 New Years Honours List.

Previous roles in government

  • Director