GDS interim boss Bellamy moved into new role as government chief product officer


As government prepares to recruit a chief digital officer, incumbent Government Digital Service head Christine Bellamy has been confirmed in a newly created leadership post focused on ‘strategic product direction’

As part of the state’s new-look digital centre formally unveiled last week, the interim chief executive of the Government Digital Service Christine Bellamy has been moved into a new role overseeing digital products throughout Whitehall.

Government announced last week that it would soon open recruitment for a new government chief digital officer – who will replace Joanna Davinson, a former Home Office and Central Digital and Office leader who last month came out of retirement to take on the role temporarily. In doing so, she replaced Mike Potter, who vacated the same role in September to focus on his health.

Once appointed, the new permanent civil service-wide digital leader will also be the de facto boss of GDS, which has now been expanded to be reunited with sister agency the CDDO, while also incorporating the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence and the Geospatial Commission.


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Working closely with the CDO will be the incumbent GDS boss Bellamy, who took on the chief exec post on an interim basis last summer, but has now been confirmed in a newly created post within the digital unit as government chief product officer. She holds the role, again, on an interim basis, according to her updated biography on GOV.UK.

“The officer is responsible for the strategic product direction and operational excellence of government products and services,” the bio adds. “They ensure the delivery of world-class digital services that transform the way citizens interact with the government.”

Bellamy takes on the product posting having joined GDS in 2022 and spent two years as director of GOV.UK. Following the departure earlier in the year of previous chief Tom Read, she took over the top job last summer a few days after the general election – at the same time as the new Labour administration announced a significant shake-up of the government digital scene, with GDS, CDDO and i.AI all moved from the Cabinet Office to their new home Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Before joining government, Bellamy spent more than 10 years in various digital leadership positions at the BBC and, prior to that, she spent almost seven years as a senior executive at Johnson Media.

Sam Trendall

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