The Scottish Office has appointed Clydesdale Bank’s head of
corporate affairs Roger Williams to head up its information service.
Williams is the first Government Information and Communication (GICS)
Service head of department to come straight from the private sector
since Labour came to power. His appointment comes a week after a report
into the service recommended the recruitment of people with commercial
experience.
Williams joins the Scottish Office in January 1998. He replaces Liz
Drummond, who took early retirement in September. Drummond is one of
eight information heads to have left or announced their departure since
Labour’s election in May.
Four more Government heads of information are due to be recruited over
coming months with external candidates being considered along with civil
servants.
Williams has ten years’ experience in the GIS but has spent the last
eight years in the private sector. For a salary of up to pounds 77,000 a
year, he will oversee 40 professional and administrative staff at the
Scottish Office, and report to Secretary of State Donald Dewar. His
contract is for five years.
He left his post as chief press officer to the Department for Trade and
Industry in 1989 to join Chevron UK, a subsidiary of US oil company
Chevron Corporation. He left Chevron as government and public affairs
manager in July 1996 to join Clydesdale.
Analysis, page 7.
