Government hires Magnus Falk as its first deputy CTO as Whitehall IT shake-up gathers pace

Former Credit Suisse CIO to take up deputy CTO mantle in Cabinet Office, reporting to Liam Maxwell

The government has continued its IT shake-up by hiring its first deputy chief technology officer, to report to CTO Liam Maxwell.

The position will be filled by former Credit Suisse CIO Magnus Falk. Falk joins a team tasked with ensuring that government technology is capable of making the shift online, the Cabinet Office said.

Falk spent 16 years at Credit Suisse, becoming CIO of the bank's EMEA region in March 2008, before leaving the post in August 2012. He then became a consultant for what he calls a "leading bank", where he was involved in a £3bn IT change programme that formed part of the bank's transformation agenda.

According to the Cabinet Office, Falk is not the only technology expert to have been drafted in over the past year. It claims that more than 100 digital and technology specialists have been brought in as Whitehall bids to shift public services to digital formats.

Other recent high-profile appointments include the Ministry of Justice's new CTO Ian Sayer, who was global CIO at Electrolux, and HMRC's new chief digital and information officer Mark Dearnley, who had served as CIO of telecoms giant Vodafone.

Former global head of online at Vodafone, Kevin Cunnington, also switched from the telco to the government to become chief digital officer at the Department for Work and Pensions - a particularly challenging role amid rumours about the state of its ambitious Universal Credit programme.

The Cabinet Office also revealed that Jacqueline Steed, former managing director and CIO for BT Wholesale, would become chief digital officer at the Student Loan Company, and would start her new job next week.