David Turner, currently the chief technology officer at bookmaker William Hill, is to take on the corresponding role at NHSX.
The appointment has been revealed in a tweet by Matthew Gould, chief executive of the digital policy body inside the Department for Health and Social Care, saying that Turner will step into the role in May.
Until then Hadley Beeman will remain in the role in an interim capacity, following which she will stay on as the secretary of state’s chief technology adviser.
Turner’s career history so far has been in the private sector, most recently delivering the digital transformation for William Hill, where he harnessed facial recognition technology as part of measures to prevent gambling addiction. Prior to that he had worked for Hermes, Actian Corporation and HSBC.
He describes himself as “a technologist, an architect and a lover of APIs”, and emphasises the importance of agile and lean ways of working.
Image from GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0