It has been announced that Stephen Kelly will succeed Ian Watmore as UK Government Chief Operating Officer (COO). The press announcement states, “The appointment of Stephen Kelly as Chief Operating Officer for Government will enable the Government to go even further with its crucial efficiency and reform agenda and build on the £5.5 billion of efficiency savings achieved last year”.
Kelly is, of course, a well-known name in the IT industry. He was appointed to the Board of Directors of US Nasdaq-listed Chordiant in 2000 (leaving in 2005) and served as CEO of MicroFocus from 2006 to 2009 (see HotViews archive). Since then he has had various interests as either investor or Board Director with a number of smaller businesses, such as Cloudapps (see Kelly joins Cloudapps).
More recently though, Kelly took on the role of Crown Commercial Representative for the Cabinet Office heading up the ‘mutuals’ programme (see Stephen Kelly and the new ‘mutuals’). He led the delivery of myCSP (my Civil Service Pension), the Government’s first mutual partnership, and signed off on its first contract to administer the pension scheme (see MyCSP 'mutual' attraction). Since the announcement of myCSP, we have heard very little of the mutualisation programme. There is nothing to indicate that Kelly won’t continue with his Crown Commercial Rep role. Kelly’s appointment as COO makes us think that the Government is determined to keep ‘mutuals’ centre stage as it transforms the way Government operates.