Gautam Rangarajan, an Indian-origin strategist and media executive, has been appointed to the newly created role of Expert Adviser on Structure and Process by UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham. The announcement, made by the Prime Minister’s Office at 10 Downing Street, places the former BBC executive at the heart of the British government’s planned administrative overhaul. Rangarajan took up the position in the week following the announcement, making him one of the first senior outsiders brought in to drive Burnham’s vision of running the government differently.
Who Is Gautam Rangarajan?
Gautam Rangarajan is a senior strategist with more than three decades of experience in media, corporate strategy, and public service broadcasting. Born in November 1971, he studied music at the University of Cambridge, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music. He later completed the Non-Executive Director Diploma under the FT Board Director Programme.
Rangarajan comes from a distinguished Indian family. His late father, L. N. Rangarajan, was a senior Indian diplomat who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1956 and served as India’s Ambassador to Norway, Greece, Sudan, Tunisia, and Iceland. The elder Rangarajan also earned fame as an author, most notably for his acclaimed translation of Kautilya’s Arthashastra, the ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, economics, and governance.
A Three-Decade Career at the BBC
Rangarajan began his career at the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) in 1993 as a trainee producer for classical music programming on BBC Radio 3. He worked his way up, becoming an executive producer and then moving into strategy roles, becoming a strategy manager in 2003 and head of strategy soon after. He was appointed controller of BBC corporate strategy in 2009, a position in which he was involved in the 2010 licence fee settlement and oversaw the broadcaster’s pan-BBC strategy.
In 2013, he became the Group Director of Strategy and Performance, a role he held until 2025. In this capacity, he led the BBC’s thinking on the evolution of markets, audiences, and technologies, and was responsible for overseeing the broadcaster’s digital transformation for more than a decade. Away from the office, he describes himself as a professional choral singer and music producer.
The New Role: Expert Adviser on Structure and Process
The role of Expert Adviser on Structure and Process is a newly created position at 10 Downing Street, the official office and residence of the British Prime Minister. The Downing Street announcement said Rangarajan brings significant experience in corporate strategy and transformation, though detailed terms of reference for the role have not been released.
As an expert adviser, Rangarajan sits outside the traditional permanent civil service. He is effectively a specialist brought in from the outside to provide expertise that goes beyond conventional political careers. Officials expect him to contribute to the planned transformation of the structures and processes at the heart of government, helping Burnham reshape how the country is administered.
An expert adviser of this kind is distinct from a special adviser, or SpAd, who is a temporary civil servant and political appointee who advises ministers. Rangarajan’s profile, in contrast, is built around corporate strategy, organisational transformation, and large-scale change programmes, which the new administration wants to apply to the machinery of the state.
Burnham’s Reshaping of the Centre of Government
Rangarajan’s appointment comes less than a month after Andy Burnham became Prime Minister, and it sits within a much wider programme of institutional reform. Burnham, who served as Mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017 to 2026 before returning to Parliament, won the Labour Party leadership uncontested in July 2026 and took office on 20 July 2026. He is the United Kingdom’s seventh Prime Minister in a decade, and he has promised to break with the centralised, London-dominated model of running Britain.
His agenda, often described as “doing things differently”, rests on two pillars. The first is a major restructuring of how the centre of government operates. The second is a drive to shift power and decision-making out of the capital and into the regions, a policy known as devolution.
The Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet
One of Burnham’s first acts in office was to create the Office for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet (OPMC). This new body houses No. 10 Downing Street, the new No. 10 North office in Manchester, and the teams within the Cabinet Office that directly serve the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
The OPMC is led by Cabinet Secretary Dame Antonia Romeo, the most senior civil servant, and is overseen at a ministerial level by Louise Haigh, who serves as First Secretary of State. The government said the aim of the new structure is to ensure the centre of government stays focused on its top strategic priorities. The OPMC also houses a new AI Taskforce, reflecting the government’s ambition to apply artificial intelligence across the public sector.
No. 10 North and the Devolution Push
The most symbolic element of the reform is No. 10 North, a northern branch of Downing Street based in Manchester, the city Burnham governed for nine years. Operating out of Heron House in Manchester city centre as an interim headquarters, No. 10 North is meant to act as the engine room of devolution and growth across every region of the country.
Under the new structure, responsibility for English devolution and local economic growth strategy has moved to the Manchester operation from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, while local economic growth policy has moved from the HM Treasury. Civil servants based in London have been offered relocation packages to encourage them to work from the North.
Burnham has also realigned government departments. He abolished the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and merged most of its functions into the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST), a broader version of the former business department. The Rangarajan appointment is intended to give strategic and organisational shape to these sweeping changes.
Indian-Origin Figures in Burnham’s Government
Rangarajan is not the only person of Indian origin to hold a senior position under Burnham. The new Prime Minister has given several key roles to British politicians of Indian heritage, reflecting the growing presence and influence of the Indian diaspora in British public life.
Kanishka Narayan, a Labour MP of Indian origin, has been appointed to the newly created role of Minister for AI, a position that gives him a seat at the Cabinet table. Satvir Kaur and Harpreet Uppal have also taken up important government positions. Rangarajan’s appointment extends this trend beyond politics, bringing an Indian-origin professional with a corporate background into the very centre of the Prime Minister’s operation.
Significance of the Appointment
The appointment matters on several levels. For the British government, it signals that Burnham is serious about structural reform and willing to bring in private-sector expertise to reshape the state. Rangarajan’s background at the BBC, one of the world’s largest and oldest public service broadcasters, is seen as directly relevant, because the BBC itself has gone through repeated large-scale reorganisations, digital renewal, and financial negotiations, all areas the British government now faces.
For the Indian diaspora, the appointment is another marker of rising representation in Western governments. Britain is home to one of the largest Indian-origin populations outside India, and Indian-origin professionals and politicians have increasingly reached the top of British public life. The fact that a former BBC strategy chief of Indian descent now advises the British Prime Minister on how to restructure his government shows how far that integration has progressed.
There are also potential implications for India-UK relations. The two countries have deepened their partnership in recent years through trade talks and mobility agreements, and the presence of Indian-origin figures in senior British positions provides a natural bridge for stronger bilateral ties.
Key Takeaways
- Gautam Rangarajan, an Indian-origin strategist and former BBC executive, has been appointed Expert Adviser on Structure and Process by UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, a newly created role at 10 Downing Street.
- Rangarajan spent more than 30 years at the BBC, starting as a classical music radio producer in 1993 and rising to become Group Director of Strategy and Performance from 2013 to 2025.
- His father, L. N. Rangarajan, was a senior Indian diplomat and the translator of Kautilya’s Arthashastra.
- The appointment supports Burnham’s overhaul of the centre of government, including the creation of the Office for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet (OPMC) and the No. 10 North office in Manchester.
- Burnham took office on 20 July 2026 as the UK’s seventh Prime Minister in a decade, after winning the Labour leadership uncontested in July 2026.
- Rangarajan joins other Indian-origin figures in the administration, including Kanishka Narayan, the UK’s Minister for AI.
