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Andy Nelson appointed new UK Government CIO

23rd January 2012

Andy Nelson has been appointed the new CIO for UK Government, replacing Joe Harley who announced his retirement late last year. Nelson will retain his position as CIO for the Ministry of Justice alongside the new role, and will be closely involved with the current procurement process for the Government’s G-Cloud initiative.

The Cabinet Office has been on the look-out for a new CIO since 22nd November 2011, when Joe Harley, who had been in the role for less than 12 months, announced his retirement.

Harley’s departure had followed hot on the heels of former Deputy CIO Bill McCluggage’s resignation on 10th November, who left to join IT providers EMC, and signalled a number of questions about the feasibility of the high-profile posts.

However, Nelson’s appointment appears to be a logical one, having already been heavily involved in Government IT strategy for almost 3 years, and in the private sector, in positions such as group director for strategic change and IS at Royal Sun Alliance.

Ian Watmore, Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Office, said of Nelson’s appointment:

“It is fantastic to be able to assign the role of government CIO to someone who has held major CIO roles in private sector and has been involved in the ICT strategy since the very beginning.

“Andy has worked closely with Joe over the past months and will continue to do so – ensuring that we continue to deliver ICT services fit for a modern civil service.”

Harley will officially retire from the civil service in March of this year. Although not outlined in today’s Cabinet Office press release, it is likely that Nelson’s new role will involve directing the implementation of ICT initiatives previously outlined by Harley and Minister of the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, including the planned consolidation of data centres and development of cloud computing services in the public sector.

Maude himself will join Andy Nelson as keynote speakers at one of Europe's premier IT events, the Cloud Computing World Forum in London, on 12th and 13th June 2012.

Tags: public sector cloud