Jeffrey Daniel Dominic James (''né'' Walker; born 11 March 1968) is a British

public servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

and executive, and former

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

sailor. Since 2014, he has been Chief executive and Keeper of

The National Archives National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives. Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...

Early life and education

James was born on 11 March 1968 in

Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...

, West Midlands, England. His surname at birth was Walker, but it was changed to James when he was later

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

by Edwin and Edith James. From 1979 to 1984, he was educated at Park View Comprehensive School in

Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street (), also known as Chester, is a market town and civil parish in County Durham, England, around north of Durham and also close to Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located on the River Wear, which runs out to sea at Sun ...

, County Durham. James did not attend university straight after leaving school. Later, he studied for a degree with the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

, a part-time

distance learning Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

university, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 2001. He studied history as a postgraduate at the

University of Hertfordshire The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...

, completing his Master of Arts degree in 2010.

Career

Military service

In 1984, James joined the

as a

rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality, quantity, or some combination of both. Rating or ratings may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...

. He trained as an

electronic engineer Electronics engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering which emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current ...

, and specialised as a Weapons Engineering Artificer. He worked on the ''Resolution''-class and ''Vanguard''-class

submarines A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely o ...

, which operate the

Polaris Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that ...

and

Trident A trident is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. The trident is the weapon of Poseidon, or Neptune, the God of the Sea in classical mythology. The trident may occasionally be held by other marine ...

nuclear programmes respectively. In 1992, he was promoted to

chief petty officer A chief petty officer (CPO) is a senior non-commissioned officer in many navies and coast guards. Canada "Chief petty officer" refers to two ranks in the Royal Canadian Navy. A chief petty officer 2nd class (CPO2) (''premier maître de deuxi� ...

. He left the navy in September 1998 after 14 years of service.

Public service

After leaving the

, James joined the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

as an IT technical support officer. He was later appointed

Network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

Group Manager. From 2003 to 2004 he was operations manager of Swift Research Ltd, a

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

-based

market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers: know about them, starting with who they are. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness. Mark ...

agency. In 2004, he joined the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

and worked in various operations management positions for the next three years. He ended his time at the British Library as Head of Operations. In 2007, James joined

as Director of Operations and Services. From June 2013 to July 2014 he was Deputy Chief executive of the

Chartered Institute of Housing The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) is the professional body for those working in the housing profession in the United Kingdom. It has a royal charter, gained in 1984. Currently CIH has over 17,000 members, mostly in the UK but also overseas, ...

, and was "responsible for leading on strategy development, operational excellence, business performance and change management". In May 2014, he was announced as the next Chief executive and Keeper of The National Archives. He took up the appointment on 29 July 2014.

Personal life

In 2010, James married Joanne Knight. Together they have three sons, including a set of

twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Jeff 1968 births Living people British civil servants British chief executives People associated with The National Archives (United Kingdom) British electronics engineers Royal Navy sailors People from Solihull Alumni of the Open University Alumni of the University of Hertfordshire British adoptees