It has been announced that Paul Gray has been appointed as executive chairman of HMRC.
Paul has been acting as chairman since David Varney reshuffled himself out of the role in September 2006. Before that he acted as deputy, and survived the merger of the Inland Revenue and Customs.
According to the announcement on the No.10 website on the 27 February, Paul joined HM Treasury in 1969 as an economist, spending two years as a corporate planner with Booker McConnell Ltd in the 1970s. There seems to be a bit of a gap in his press "cv" summary but between 1988 and 1990 he was economic affairs private secretary to the prime minister. It continues and we learn that in 1990 Paul returned to the Treasury working on monetary policy, serving as a member of the EU Monetary Committee. He then became head of personnel and central services, and was also a non-executive director of Laing Management Ltd. From 1995 to 1998 he was director of budget and public finances. In 1998 Paul joined what was then the Department of Social Security (DSS) as head of policy.
Before taking up his current post, he was second permanent secretary and managing director, pensions and disability in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) playing a major role in forming DWP through the merger of the former DSS, the Employment Service and parts of the Department for Education and Employment.
We wish him good luck in his new job.