This paper reports a study of permanent secretaries who served at the Department for Education (DfE) from 1975 to 2011. Located within a context of theories that explain how government bureaucracies operate, it focuses on Michael Bichard. Appointed in July 1995 when attempts were being made to open Whitehall to non-career civil servants, he retired in May 2001 having served 21 months with a Conservative and 48 months with a Labour Secretary of State. He was an unusual permanent secretary. An outsider, state school and red-brick university educated whose father had been a docker, his prior service was in local government. Inter alia, the paper traces his background and career; his role in the merger of the Departments for Education and Employment (DfEE); his relationship with his Secretaries of State; his contribution to education policy; and his estimation of his style and achievements. Consideration is also given to the value of external appointments and to the merits of a descriptive based approach to the study of public sector administration.