Mark Pearson is Deputy-Director for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs at the OECD. Mark works with the Director to provide leadership in the co-ordination and management of the activities of the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs and ensure that it is at the forefront of the international social and employment agenda.
Mark joined the OECD in 1992, initially working in the Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs on tax issues. After working on the OECD Jobs Study, he moved to the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs where he headed work on employment-oriented social policies, including developing the concept of ‘Making Work Pay’ and starting the publication ‘Society at a Glance’. He became head of the Social Policy Division from 2000-2008, during which time he initiated work on ‘Babies and Bosses’, ‘Pensions at a Glance’, led the first cross-directorate work on gender, and work on income inequality in OECD countries.
In 2009 he became Head of the Health Division where the central focus of work has been on how to deliver health care with greater efficiency, including putting much more effort into prevention of obesity and harmful use of alcohol.
He gave evidence to the US Senate on ‘Obamacare’, and has been on a panel advising the Chinese government on its health reforms. Prior to joining the OECD, Mark worked for the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London, and also as a consultant for the World Bank, the IMF and the European Commission.
Mark has a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford, and an MSc in Economics and Econometrics from Birkbeck, University of London.