I am the Executive Director of Digital in the Cabinet Office, which sits at the centre of Government and has the overarching purpose of making Government work better. I joined in July 2011, and spent the first several months in Government creating the Government Digital Service (GDS).The GDS includes several parts of the Government’s digital estate: DirectGov, BusinessLink, Innovations, Digital Policy, the beta of GOV.UK and Digital Engagement. In addition, the GDS is developing the wider Government digital strategy, leading on developing transactional improvements and creating a performance framework for all Government services online.
Prior to joining the Cabinet Office, I worked as the Director of Digital Development at Guardian News & Media.
I joined GNM for the second time in February 2008 to lead its digital transformation. The digital development team delivered the core digital platforms, created dozens of innovative new products, co-devised the digital strategy for the organisation and opened up the Guardian’s content and data to developers and third parties.
Prior to this I was a Director at Wavex.co.uk, a leading UK technology services company. In November 2011 I sold my shares in the company to private investors.
I’ve done plenty of other things, a few worth mentioning.
I helped set up mysociety.org, in a very small way, but of which I’m proud, as it is a great organisation. Tom Steinberg and the team were years ahead in understanding what could be done with Government services and open data, and it was a pleasure to help them.
I wrote some policy pieces for the IPPR. One on the BBC, and the other on intermediaries.
I was VP Interactive at chello, the ISP brand of UPC, a long time ago. I just finished using the Air Miles.
I also have a life outside of digital. I love football. Proper football. I am chairman of the mighty Sporting Hackney FC, which is the job they give you when nobody will pick you anymore.