Alok Sharma was appointed Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 13 February 2020. He was also appointed President of COP 26, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, on the same date. He was previously Secretary of State for International Development from 24 July 2019 to 13 February 2020, and Minister of State for Employment at the Department of Work and Pensions from 9 January 2018 until 24 July 2019. He was Minister of State for Housing and Planning, for the Department for Communities and Local Government from 13 June 2017 to 9 January 2018. Parliamentary career Alok was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 17 July 2016 to 13 June 2017. He has served as a member of the Commons Treasury select committee, a member of the Commons Science and Technology select committee, a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Treasury and from 2012 to 2015 as a Conservative Party Vice Chairman. Alok was appointed in 2016 as the Prime Minister’s Infrastructure Envoy to India. He also served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt Hon Oliver Letwin MP, the former Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster who had overall responsibility for the Cabinet Office. He was elected as the Conservative MP for Reading West in May 2010. Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy The Secretary of State has overall responsibility for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy which brings together responsibilities for business, industrial strategy, science, innovation and energy. This includes: ? developing and delivering a comprehensive industrial strategy and leading the government’s relationship with business ? ensuring that the country has secure energy supplies that are reliable, affordable and clean ? ensuring the UK remains at the leading edge of science, research and innovation ? tackling climate change Previous roles in government ? Secretary of State for International Development o 2019 to 2020 ? Minister of State for Employment o 2018 to 2019 ? Minister of State for Housing and Planning o 2017 to 2018 ? Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Asia and the Pacific) o 2016 to 2017

A well-rounded development professional, with a strong track record in mobilizing private investment for infrastructure and creating new markets by working across policy makers, industry leaders, stakeholders, academia and media in South Asia, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. An IIT and IIM alum, Mr. Mehrotra is a recipient of World Bank Group President’s Award for Excellence for helping India reach grid parity for renewable power through the landmark Rewa project and helping India be in the forefront of the emerging disruptive trends such as corporate procurement of renewable energy. In his previous role he worked in the Secretariat for the Committee on Infrastructure, headed by the Prime Minister in the erstwhile Planning Commission, where he contributed to national level policy, investment frameworks and institutional capacity building to commercialize and modernize infrastructure. He contributed to shaping of marquee transactions such as Delhi and Mumbai airport privatizations and the National Highway Development Program.