As had been heavily rumoured, Liam Maxwell was announced as the new UK Government Deputy CIO last week. Maxwell joined the Cabinet Office last year as Director of ICT Futures (he will retain this role). His appointment follows Bill McCluggage’s departure to EMC at the end of last year (see UK Government Deputy CIO resigns).
Andy Nelson became UK Government CIO at the beginning of this month (see Andy Nelson named UK Government CIO), but for many it was the announcement of his Deputy that was awaited more eagerly. Nelson, like Joe Harley before him, is continuing with his other role as CIO at the Ministry of Justice. Yet, the role of UK Government CIO is hardly a part-time job. As a result, the CIO’s Deputy (previously McCluggage, now Maxwell) has to take on a fair bit of the responsibility and has been viewed by some as more influential.
In addition, unlike John Suffolk (Harley’s predecessor), when Harley was CIO he preferred to keep out of the limelight and leave the public speaking to McCluggage. While Nelson is not averse to being interviewed (see TechMarketView’s UK Government CIO Agenda report), Maxwell appears to be the one that prefers the public speaking limelight. We recently saw him present at the Intellect Regent Conference, speaking passionately about his belief in the UK Government ICT strategy, most notably the SME agenda and the greater use of open standards and open source in public sector IT (areas which have been a focus for him as Director of ICT Futures).
Prior to joining the Cabinet Office, Maxwell was Head of the Academic Computing Department at Eton College between 2004 and 2011, as well as Councillor for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead between 2007 and 2011. Importantly, during this time he helped draft the Conservative Technology Policy as well as other Tory IT policy documents. He also authored a report for the think-tank, Network for the Post-Bureaucratic Age, entitled “Better for Less – how to make government IT deliver savings” in 2010. Earlier on in his career he worked at Accenture/Andersen Consulting in the early 90s where he may well have crossed paths with his now Cabinet Office colleague Ian Watmore (see Watmore becomes a Sir Humphrey).