Until December 2005, Nicholas Mabey was a senior advisor in the British Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, leading work on a variety of policy areas, including energy, fisheries, unstable states and organised crime. Mabey was previously Head of Sustainable Development in the British Foreign and Commonewealth Office’s Environment Policy department.

Before he joined government, Mabey was Head of Economics and Development at World Wildlife Fund-UK. He came to WWF from academic research at London Business School on the economics of climate change, published in the book, Argument in the Greenhouse. This followed research at MIT into energy system planning and a period in the energy industry working for PowerGen and GEC Alsthom. Mabey trained as a mechanical engineer at Bristol University, specialising in energy systems, and holds a masters degree in Technology and Policy from MIT.