Tom Wylie became chief executive of the National Youth Agency in 1996 from a post as assistant director of inspection for the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). He was born and educated in Belfast where he was a teacher and youth worker. He worked for the Scout Association and the National Youth Bureau and became one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education in 1979, managing the Inspectorate’s Divisions responsible for youth and community work, for educational disadvantage and for curriculum.

He has chaired or served on various governmental and EU advisory groups and committees of the Economic and Social Research Council, the Prince’s Trust, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. In 2005-06 he was specialist adviser to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on Beacon Councils.