Name: Steve Lamey

Title: CIO

Company: HM Revenue & Customs

What they say about him: "Steve has a great style which I am sure will see him do well at Revenue and Customs. If anybody's perception of the Inland Revenue was grey and boring it will change soon."

Steve Lamey took on one of the biggest and most challenging IT jobs in government when he became CIO of the newly merged HM Customs and Excise and Inland Revenue departments in October 2004.

Aside from the challenge of overseeing the successful integration of the IT operations of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and supporting almost 100,000 staff, Lamey is responsible for one of the biggest outsourcing deals in the public sector - the £3bn Capgemini Aspire deal, which replaced a previous long-term contract with EDS.

Working at such a high-profile department as HMRC Lamey is under intense public scrutiny and it has been something of a roller-coaster ride, what with some of the problems he inherited, such as the fallout from the tax credits fiasco.

After graduating in mining engineering from University College Cardiff in 1978 Lamey spent 22 years at FTSE 100 industrial gases group BOC where he rose to become director of global information and management. Lamey then became British Gas CIO in 2000 where he led a global SAP rollout.