Martha Lane Fox and Hermann Hauser to join new government digital advisory board
Big-names roped in to advise the GDS on 'delivering world-beating digital public services'
Acorn Computers founder and Amadeus Capital Partners' Hermann Hauser and LastMinute.com co-founder Baroness Martha Lane Fox are among the names joining a new government technology advisory board.
The group will report to the Government Digital Service (GDS), and will be chaired by Stephen Foreshew-Cain, executive director of the GDS.
In addition to Hauser and Lane Fox, other big-names appointed to the board include Richard Allen, director of policy at Facebook; Sir Nigel Shadbolt, founder of the Open Data Institute; Saul Klein, founder of LoveFilm; and Monique Shivanandan, group CIO of Aviva. The other members are listed below.
The plan is for the group to meet once per quarter to "support, advise and challenge" how the government uses technology to provide better services to the public, and consider how emerging digital and technology trends could be used by public services.
Cabinet Office minister Matthew Hancock unveiled the board during the Sprint 16 tech event, saying that access to the expertise of tech "heavyweights" will ensure that the government focuses its technology strategy on the right areas.
"I'm thrilled to have these experts onboard and looking forward to working closely with them to discover and build the new digital infrastructure," he added.
The other members of the board are:
- Joanne Hannaford, global co-head of enterprise platforms at Goldman Sachs;
- Brent Hoberman, co-founder of LastMinute.com (with Lane Fox) and co-founder and executive chairman at Founders Factory Ltd;
- Brian McBride, chairman of ASOS and former UK managing director of Amazon.co.uk;
- Dr Sue Black, founding chair, BCSWomen;
- Herman Narula, CEO and co-founder of Improbable;
- Wendy Tan White, general partner at Entrepreneur First ;
- Vanessa Vallely, managing director and founder of WeAreTheCity.com.