Andrew Pinder has been named as the new permanent e-Envoy for the
UK government. His task will be to drive the Government's UKonline
campaign, to ensure universal access to the internet by 2005 and to
get all Government services on-line by that date.
Andrew Pinder has been named as the new permanent e-Envoy for the
UK government. His task will be to drive the Government's UKonline
campaign, which aims to make Britain a leading e-commerce nation,
to ensure universal access to the internet by 2005 and to get all
Government services on-line by that date.
Andrew Pinder has in fact been the acting e-Envoy since October
last year when Alex Allan resigned for personal reasons.
Mr Pinder will work with Patricia Hewitt and Ian McCartney in his
role. The job description of Patricia Hewitt, the e-Minister, is to
provide “political leadership across Government in driving forward
the Government's objectives on e-commerce.” Ian McCartney, the
Minister for e-Government, has “particular responsibility within
that wider framework for delivery of e-Government objectives.”
The role of Mr Pinder as e-Envoy is described as “galvanising
business in the UK to face up to the challenges of e-commerce, to
provide strategic input into the development of e-Government, to
promote the UK's e-commerce strategy abroad and to ensure that the
benefits of e-commerce are spread throughout society.”
Mr Pinder’s background includes 18 years with the Inland Revenue
where he helped computerise the PAYE system. He then left to become
Director of Operations and Technology at Prudential and also worked
for Citibank.
Kieren McCarthy of news site TheRegister.co.uk critically
suggests that his confirmation as permanent e-Envoy could be
“because no one half-way decent bothered to apply for such an
impotent job.”
