Public Sector
Government CIO Joe Harley retires
UK public sector's top two CIOs step down in rapid succession
By Mark Chillingworth | Computerworld UK | Published 12:01, 22 November 11
Joe Harley, The government’s top CIO will retire in the Spring of 2012.
Harley had been CIO for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for seven years before last year being promoted to Government CIO replacing John Suffolk.
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The announcement of Harley’s departure follows swiftly on the heels of that of Bill McCluggage, the deputy government CIO who announced on 9 November he was to join EMC.
In an official statement Harley said:
"It’s been a great honour and a privilege to have served the Department and Government over the years. It’s been a hugely fulfilling experience. I am proud to have made some contribution to improving Public Services for the benefit of the citizen and the tax payer."
Thanking him for his work as a CIO Conservative Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said Harley had been “instrumental in building reform and modernising” the approach to technology at the Whitehall department. DWP Permanent Secretary Robert Devereux said Harley had been “pivotal in establishing commercial arrangements which give value for money and in the delivery of major changes to IT underpinning services which are critical for millions of people”.
Ex-Government CIO and now Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary Ian Watmore said: "Joe has accomplished great things in his time as Government CIO, having created and published a transformational ICT Strategy, along with plans of how it will be implemented.”
DWP said the process for replacing Harley as its departmental CIO will begin straight away and the Cabinet Office will begin a separate recruitment process to find the next government CIO in addition to a replacement for McCluggage.
