Eight major Whitehall CIO changes in 12 months

Rachel Murphy-Cooper has been announced as the Interim CTO of the National Archives following her departure from the role as CIO of the Department for Education (DfE) in July 2014. Following Murphy-Cooper’s resignation officials claimed her role at the Whitehall department had been interim.

The last 12 months has seen an unprecedented level of senior business technology leadership churn in the UK’s central government.

Some of the changes demonstrate a consolidation of C-Level technologists in Whitehall with James Findlay leading technology at both the HS2 rail company and at the Department for Transport, while Adrian Tucker’s appointment as the new CIO for theDepartment for Education does beg the question why do both the DfE and the Education Funding Agency need CIOs?

CIO charts the turbulent 12 months of the Whitehall technology leaders.

August 2013 –Mark Dearnley becomes Chief Digital and Information Officer of HMRC.

September 2013– Tom Read appointed interim CTO at the Cabinet Office, recruited from the Guardian newspaper.

October 2013 –James Findlay becomes Technology Leader of the Department for Transport whilst remaining CIO of the HS2 high speed rail organisation.

November 2013– HMRC’s Mark Dearnley says the taxation department of Whitehall will become a “digital business”.

November 2013 – Yvonne Ferguson named as CIO of the Ministry of Defence.

December 2013 –Cabinet Office begins recruitment of Deputy CTO.

February 2014 –the Guardian newspaper reveals Yvonne Ferguson is being paid as a contractor on a rate of £2,000 a day, making her one of the highest paid civil servants in the UK, the British military is making major cuts including redundancies to frontline troops who have served their country in Afghanistan.

March 2014– Andy Nelson resigns as CIO of the Department of Work and Pensions after just one year in the role.

May 2014 –Yvonne Ferguson replaced as CIO of the Ministry of Defence after just five months, officials claim her role was interim.

May 2014– Mike Stone named as new CIO of the Ministry of Defence following career in military and working with vendors

July 2014– Chris Airey takes interim CDO role at the state owned Student Loans company.

July 2014– Rachel Murphy-Cooper leavesDepartment for Education CIO role, officials claim her contract was interim.

July 2014 – Denise McDonagh resigns as CTO of the Home Office.

August 2014 –Adrian Tucker takes over as CIO of theDepartment for Education having been CIO of the Education Funding Agency a part of the Department for Education.

August 2014– Cabinet Office appoints former Credit Suisse CIO Magnus Falk as Deputy CTO to support Liam Maxwell.

August 2014 – Jacqueline Steed appointed as permanent CDO at the Student Loans company.

September 2014– DWP announce Mayank Prakash as director general for technology, a new title replacing the CIO role.

September 2014– Rachel Murphy-Cooper named as Interim CTO of the National Archives, a state owned organisation.