Mike Bracken's successor revealed as three key members of GDS quit

GDS COO Stephen Foreshew-Cain will lead the organisation, but three of the most significant architects at GDS have chosen to follow Bracken out the exit door

Stephen Foreshew-Cain, the chief operating officer of the Government Digital Service (GDS), has been chosen to succeed Mike Bracken as the new head of GDS.

But in a GDS blog announcing his new role, Foreshew-Cain said that "three of the most significant architects of GDS success to date" had decided the time was right for them to move on as well, which may come as a blow for the organisation as it seeks to continue some of the work that has been accomplished over the past few years when Mike Bracken was at the helm.

Deputy director Tom Loosemore, director of strategy Russell Davies, and director of design Ben Terrett have left their roles, and while Computing had suggested that GDS could still succeed after Bracken's departure to the Co-Operative Group as chief digital officer, much of this was reliant on the fact that Bracken had built a strong enough team to carry on in the same vein. GDS now has to find replacements for key employees who had been at the organisation for five years.

However, they have at least replaced Bracken with Foreshaw-Cain, who joined GDS in April 2014, and who brings with him experience as a delivery assurance manager at ITV, as well as being an engagement director at IT services company Capgemini. Prior to joining GDS, he was portfolio programme director of global marketing and technology agency LBi.

But, with Bracken so highly regarded within industry, Foreshaw-Cain will be under scrutiny from the get go in his new role. In the blog, Foreshew-Cain emphasised that government knows that it "is the right time for new leaders to stand up and for some to move on".

He said that he had been running GDS for a year, and is now stepping up to lead it, before adding that he wouldn't be doing that alone.

Of those leaders helping him, he said, Liam Maxwell will continue as chief technology officer, while others will take on additional responsibilities.

Chris Ferguson, previously GOV.UK Verify programme director, will lead the GDS digital group, while Felicity Singleton, programme director of the government-as-a-platform ‘enabling strategy', will lead on digital policy and departmental engagement.

Wendy Colleo, meanwhile, who currently leads the digital engagement teams, will increase the scope of her portfolio to include digital design.