Mike Bracken, government's CDO and head of GDS, resigns from Whitehall

Bracken leaves after masterminding the extension of public services online and spearheading government's digital revolution

Mike Bracken, the head of the Government Digital Service and the government's chief data officer (CDO), has resigned from Whitehall.

Bracken joined the government in July 2011, after a three-year stint at Guardian News & Media as its director of digital development, and has masterminded the extension of public services online. He was ranked 19th in Computing's inaugural IT Leaders 100 list.

His impact on those he worked with could be seen on Twitter, with tributes to hime pouring in.

In a blog post on the GDS website, Bracken explained that at the end of last week, he went to see the man he reports into, John Manzoni, to tell him that he was leaving government.

He thanked the likes of digital champion Martha Lane Fox, Minister of State for Trade Francis Maude, as well as the original creator of the G-Cloud, Chris Chant. He went on to state that the team at GDS is "the best digital delivery group in the world".

"It has been an honour and a pleasure to work with them all, whether they are here now or spent just a short period with us in the last five years.... Government doesn't know how lucky it is," he said.

Bracken believes he is leaving government's digital delivery in capable hands, particularly with the support it is getting for the future of digital transformation from the new minister of the Cabinet Office, Matt Hannock. However, there was no mention of Bracken's possible successor.

It has only been six months since Bracken was named as the first ever government CDO, a role in which he would be responsible for developing a new government data standard, championing open data, and encouraging the user of data in the decision-making process.

At the time, Maude said he was delighted to announce that Bracken would become the government CDO after "spearheading this government's digital revolution".

Bracken had high-level admirers for the way he changed the way government thought of "digital". For example, former HMRC CIO Phil Pavitt said that he had seen digital directors or CDOs recruited in other organisations, and the disruption they bring - but said that at times "it can be powerful, like the Mike Bracken concept in government".