CARE UK leads the CARE confederations work on Women’s Economic Empowerment and the organisations response to the High Level Panel Report on Women’s Economic Empowerment. Laurie joined CARE International UK as Chief Executive in August 2014. He previously worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he led the team working on policy, advocacy and government relations in Africa. Prior to 2008, Laurie was a civil servant in the UK Government, mainly in the Department for International Development (DFID), in which his last position was Deputy Director and Head of the International Trade Department. From 2004 to 2006 Laurie served as Deputy Director and Foreign Policy Adviser on Africa to the UK Prime Minister, helping to negotiate some of the key agreements on debt, aid and HIV and AIDS reached during the UK’s presidency of the G8 in 2005.