Since October 2006, Maeve Sherlock has been a full-time postgraduate student at Durham University.  Until then, she was chief executive of the Refugee Council.  Before that, she spent three years as a special adviser to Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, where her brief included child poverty, welfare reform and the voluntary sector.
Before moving to the Treasury, Maeve was chief executive of the National Council for One Parent Families and, prior to that, director of UKCOSA, a charity focusing on overseas students and international education. She is a former President of the National Union of Students and a commissioner on the Equality and Human Rights Commission

Sherlock is currently chairing an advisory panel which is advising ministers on the future role of the third sector in economic and social regeneration. She is also a member of the Carnegie Commission of Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society and a trustee of the independent think-tank, Demos.