Commissioner
Richard Hill Mackenzie CB
Dick Mackenzie was born in Ballymena and educated at Grosvenor High School, Belfast and Queen’s University Belfast, where he graduated in 1965 with a B.Sc. in Economics. He lives in Belfast.
He joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service as a clerk in 1959 and progressed through the various grades reaching the rank of Deputy Secretary in the Department of the Environment in 1987.
During his civil service career he was mainly concerned with the administration of town and country planning in the Department of the Environment, although as Deputy Secretary his portfolio ranged over all of the functions of that Department over the years. In 2000 his contribution to planning in Northern Ireland was recognised by the Royal Town Planning Institute which made him an Honorary Member.
In 2000 he was appointed as the first Joint Secretary of the North/South Ministerial Council, from which position he retired in 2002.
He was appointed as a Parliamentary Boundary Commissioner for Northern Ireland in 2002. In the same year he was made a Visiting Professor in Planning at the University of Ulster.
In the 2002 New Years Honours List, HM the Queen recognised his contribution to public service in Northern Ireland by installing him as a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB).