Matthew Steven Gould CMG MBE (born 20 August 1971) is a British former civil servant and diplomat who is the Chief Executive Officer of international science-led conservation charity ZSL (Zoological Society of London).

[3] After St Paul's he spent a year teaching at Nyarukunda Secondary School in Northern Zimbabwe, with the organisation Project Trust.

[4] During this time, he spent a summer in Tanzania with the environmental NGO Frontier, and subsequently published an article on termite feeding preferences in the academic journal Sociobiology.

[6] In Manila, Gould launched a programme of co-operation between Britain and the Philippines to combat child abuse, which included bringing detectives from the UK to run training courses for Filipino police officers.

In this time, he worked with Baroness Scotland, then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, to create a more effective and active approach to the practice of forced marriage.

Afterwards, from April to July 2007, Gould was Private Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister, initially with Tony Blair and then under Gordon Brown.

"[14] In November 2011, in discussing religious faith and diplomats, Middle East Minister Alistair Burt said that "there is absolutely no reason why our ambassador to Israel should not be Jewish.

"[15] In 2011, Gould and wife Celia, together with then-Israeli ambassador to London Ron Prosor, launched an appeal in the UK Jewish community to raise money to aid Holocaust survivors in Israel.

"[18] In November 2011, he warned Israeli MK Ophir Akunis that the passage of a bill that would limit foreign funding to human rights organisations, would "reflect badly on Israel in the international community".

[22] Gould said in an interview in August 2012, "Israelis might wake up in 10 years time and find out that suddenly the international community has changed, and that patience for continuing the status quo has reduced.

According to an article in the Jewish Chronicle of London, an "Israeli Foreign Ministry source said privately that it was a pity more diplomats did not say what Mr Gould had said.

[28] In March 2016, he was listed as director of the European and Global Issues Secretariat, part of the Cabinet Office which coordinates policy on international trade and development.

[33] In March 2019, Gould described and defended the unit's role when he appeared before the Science and Technology Select Committee during its enquiry into digital government.

[32] NHSX came to public notice in April 2020 after it commissioned NHS COVID-19, a contact tracking app to monitor the spread of COVID-19,[35] which was later dropped by the UK government in favour of an Apple/Google-developed alternative.

[36][37] Michael Gove, Cabinet Office minister, described Gould as an "inspirational public servant" when replying to questions on the app in the Commons in April 2020.