Tom Read has stepped down as the Cabinet Office’s chief technology officer after almost two years in the job.
During his tenure, Read led work on “technology transformation” programmes for the Cabinet Office, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), aiming to address civil servants’ frustrations with their IT at work and improve the way the departments buy technology. In a Cabinet Office blog posted last year, Read said he believed the programme would result in civil servants using IT that was both “better and cheaper”.
He has also advised the Home Office on its “Reset” technology programme, which has set out to move the department away from large public-sector contracts towards more agile deals with small and medium-sized firms.
Read’s departure follows the appointment, reported by PublicTechnology last month, of Conall Bullock to the newly-created Cabinet Office role of chief digital officer. The new post combines the digital brief with the previously separate jobs of CTO and chief information officer.
Posting about his departure on Twitter, Read said he had had a “fabulous couple of years” in the job, while Cabinet Office permanent secretary Richard Heaton praised the outgoing CTO for having made technology at the Cabinet Office and Department for Culture, Media and Sport “the best in Whitehall”.
Read joined the Cabinet Office in 2013 after five years at the Guardian, and has also worked for Lloyds TSB and Severn Trent Water.
