Natalie Ceeney CBE, Chief Executive of The National Archives, announced today (Monday 11 January) that she will be leaving in mid-March, to take on a new role as Chief Executive of the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Natalie has been Chief Executive since 2005, and over the past four and a half years has made a major contribution to the continuing success of the organisation. Under her leadership, The National Archives has become a pioneer in knowledge and information management, while providing access to its collection and expertise to an increasingly wide and diverse audience.
The Ministry of Justice will be handling the recruitment of Natalie's successor through open competition. In the intervening period the Ministry has asked Oliver Morley, currently Director of Customer and Business Development, to take over as interim Chief Executive.
In his current role, Oliver is responsible for customer, product and service strategy, partnership and business development, trading services, and marketing and communications. His team led the launch of the online 1911 census and many other leading historical content services via the relaunched nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Prior to The National Archives, Oliver was at Thomson Reuters, with global responsibility for improving information services for customers.
Ironically I just received a quote from the press office concerning Natalie's CBE award - “I am honoured to receive this award. I am proud to be part of such a great and important institution and to have made a contribution to its success. Archives serve as our nation’s memory and as guardian of government’s information we constantly look to enrich the public record for future generations.” Clearly it's been a busy day at TNA!
(Picture courtesy of the National Archives press office)
UPDATE: Statement from Natalie Ceeney
It’s with a real mix of emotions that, after over 4 years here at The National Archives, I’ll be leaving in mid March to take up a new role, as Chief Executive of the Financial Ombudsman Service.
I’ve loved working at The National Archives, and feel very proud of everything that the organisation has achieved over the last few years. Over the past four years we’ve built up and really championed the Knowledge & Information Management Profession, which is going to be critically important going forward. And we’ve developed, together with partners across government, services such as Civil Pages (which launches to the whole Civil Service in April), and the Shared Service Digital Continuity Service (which is now tendering for a framework agreement that Departments can embed in their IT contracts). And, across the wider archive sector, we’ve developed a clear strategy which should help take the sector forward. I will really miss my current role, and miss working with my colleagues across government, but with my five year contract coming to an end later this year, it’s now the right time for me to move on, and let someone else take over the leadership of The National Archives and of the KIM Profession. I’ve got every confidence that The National Archives and Government KIM will continue to go from strength to strength, and that I’ll read about the latest news regularly in the press!
The recruitment of my successor will be handled by the Ministry of Justice. Given the need to do a full, open competition for my role, this will take some time. In the meantime, the Ministry of Justice have asked Oliver Morley, currently our Customer & Business Development Director, to step into the Chief Executive role on an interim basis. I’ve worked closely with Oliver over the past year, and am confident that he’ll do an excellent job. I will try and introduce Oliver to as many people as I can before he formally starts.
I won’t be leaving for two months yet, so I hope that, over that time, I’ll have a chance to say goodbye to everyone. And thank you for all the help and support you’ve given me, and The National Archives, over the last four years. I hope we can keep in touch.
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Natalie Ceeney did exactly what she was paid to do at The National Archives, that is to cut costs. Her reward for cutting costs was a CBE. The reward for hard work for many employees at TNA was redundancy.
ReplyDeleteNatalie Ceeney thrives on derision, but how can she sleep peacefully knowing that she has affected the lives of so many people so negatively?
I hope The National Archives will recover from the devasting cutbacks railroaded through by Natalie and her team of followers by being allowed to have a Keeper of Records who actually understands the records and the needs of the Readers who examine them whether they be digital or original.
Step forward that person...