 No. 6 Richard Granger, director general, NHS IT
Last year's position: 14
A former Deloitte and Anderson management consultant, Richard Granger was a new entry on last year's list on account of being in charge of a £2.3bn IT budget critical to the modernisation of the NHS and which represents one of the largest - if not the largest - public sector IT investments globally.
That money has now been spent and the contracts for the electronic patient record and e-booking systems along with the NHS broadband network are all in place. The time for Granger's trademark tough-talking is over and the proof will be in the execution of these massive IT projects.
Granger's prominent position on the Agenda Setters list this year is largely due to the fact that the success of the NHS IT project is critical to the government's modernisation agenda.
IT is being hailed by UK Chancellor Gordon Brown as key to the Gershon efficiency review, which recommends slashing the number of civil servants across government. But if the NHS programme goes down in flames then the whole political agenda will change, setting public sector IT back years.
|
