Rob Varley was appointed chief executive of the Met Office in 2014.^[1] He stepped down in 2018.^[2] Rob was First Vice President of the World Meteorological Organization until 24 April 2018.^[3]

He was educated at Cheltenham Bournside School and graduated from the University of East Anglia with a BSc in Environmental Sciences in 1983.^[4] Varley was the first CEO to be promoted from within the Met Office since its founding in 1854.^[5] He holds a postgraduate diploma in Management from the University of Reading (2001) and a diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors (2010). He received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of East Anglia in 2016.^[6] He is a Chartered Meteorologist of the Royal Meteorological Society^[7] and Chartered Director of the Institute of Directors.^[8] In 2012 he was named as the Institute of Directors' Director of the Year (Public and Third Sectors).^[9]

Rob was Vice President of the Royal Meteorological Society from 2013 to 2014,^[10] President of EUMETNET from 2015 to 2018 ^[11] and First Vice President of the World Meteorological Organisation from 2017 to 2018.^[12]