The government has appointed Stephen Kelly, former CEO of Micro Focus, as its new chief operating officer.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said that Kelly’s appointment was another step to wards his goal of government running "like the best businesses".

Kelly, who will lead the Cabinet Office’s Efficiency and Reform team,
 began working for the government in July last year, when he was appointed Crown Commercial Representative.

In that role, he has assisted the government in negotiating new deals with its IT suppliers including SAP, Oracle and Microsoft. These renegotiations have saved the government £800 million, the Cabinet Office claims.

He also oversaw the creation of myCSP, a mutualised civil service pension scheme  that is part owned by its employees.

Kelly joined Micro Focus as CEO in 2006. By the time he left abruptly in 2009 for "personal reason", the company’s revenue had more than tripled.

He is also chairman of the board of directors at CloudApps, a UK-based carbon monitoring software-as-a-service vendor.