G-Cloud chief Chris Chant to retire

G-Cloud chief Chris Chant to retire

Updated: Government's G-Cloud programme director is to leave at the end of this month

The Cabinet Office has confirmed that Chris Chant, the government's G-Cloud programme director, is to retire at the end of April.

A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said the department was "very thankful" for Chant's contribution to the G-Cloud programme, and that he leaves the project "in a very strong place". There will be no immediate announcement about who will take over when he leaves, she told Guardian Government Computing.

"We'll be making an announcement in the coming weeks [about the role]," she said.

Chant has driven the implementation of the government's Cloudstore. Launched in February , it contains 1,700 services and acts as an online marketplace through which public sector bodies can purchase cloud services from more than 250 different suppliers.

Confirmation of Chant's departure follows a typically forthright blog post by the career civil servant , in which he urged chief information officers (CIOs) to change the way they procure ICT.

His retirement is the latest move among Whitehall IT civil servants, and follows last week's appointment of Liam Maxwell as the new deputy government CIO .

Update: Denise McDonagh, director of IT at the Home Office, has been confirmed as Chris Chant's replacement.