Ed Balls is Senior Fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School's Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government and Visiting Professor to the Policy Institute at King’s College London.

He was UK Shadow Chancellor from 2011 to 2015 and co-chaired the American Progress Inclusive Prosperity Commission with former US Treasury Secretary, Larry Summers, which reported in January 2015.  He served as a member of the Prime Minister’s Holocaust Commission and is now a member of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation Board.  

He served in the British Cabinet as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (2007-2010). He was previously the UK Economic Secretary and Minister for Financial Services (2006-2007) and the Chief Economic Adviser to the UK Treasury (1997-2004), during which time he was the Chair of the International Monetary Fund Deputies and UK G20 Deputy.

Ed was the Labour & Co-operative Member of Parliament for Morley and Outwood (2010-2015) and MP for Normanton (2005-2010).

As Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury (1997-2004), Ed led the design of policies including independence of the Bank of England, the New Deal jobs program, the Five Tests Euro assessment, Sure Start, tax credits and the national minimum wage.

As a Treasury Minister, he was commissioned by the G7 Finance Ministers in 2006 to prepare a report with Sir Jon Cunliffe (now deputy Governor of the Bank of England) on Economic Aspects of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

At the Department for Children, Schools and Families, Ed brought together schools and children's policy for the first time in the Children's Plan and led policies to raise the UK education and training leaving age to 18, establish the independent Office for Qualifications and Examination Regulation (Ofqual), reform the Academies program, establish the National Challenge initiative to turn around under-performing schools, reform the social work profession and transform services and short breaks for disabled children and their families.

As Shadow Chancellor, Ed was awarded the Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year in 2011 and the Political Studies Association Politician of the Year, 2011

Born in Norwich in 1967, his family moved to Nottingham when Ed was 8. He attended Crossdale Drive primary school and then Nottingham High School. Ed went on to study economics and philosophy at Keble College, Oxford, and economics and politics (MPA) at the John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard, where he was a Kennedy Scholar.

Ed was a teaching fellow in the Department of Economics, Harvard University (1989-90) and co-author with Professors Lawrence Summers and Lawrence Katz on labour economics. He was Economics leader writer and columnist at the Financial Times (1990-94) where he was the WINCOTT Young Financial Journalist of the Year. He has also written regularly for the Guardian, New Statesman and Tribune and co-authored a number of books, papers, articles and pamphlets.

Ed is married to Yvette Cooper MP, the Shadow Home Secretary. They have three children and live in London and Castleford. His interests include learning the piano, marathon running, cooking and supporting Norwich City. He is a member of the Privy Council and an Honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford.