Lin Homer, HMRC’s recently appointed Chief Executive Officer, was ranked seventh in a list of 100 ‘people to watch in 2012’ published in The Times today – just ahead of the Duchess of Cambridge, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Charles Dickens.
The list, headed by Danny Boyle – the film-maker in charge of designing the opening and closing ceremonies at the London Olympics – appears to have dismayed some readers.
‘Who can be in the top 10 above the PM, Deputy PM and the Chancellor? Not the Queen or Barack Obama, it seems,’ one reader asked.
But there is no doubt that Homer faces a tough challenge. David Wighton, the paper’s chief business commentator, noted that ‘managing Britain’s tax collectors is a tough job at any time but Revenue & Customs is under pressure to justify the deals that it has made with big companies and has the lowest morale of any Whitehall department’.
He added: ‘The appointment of Ms Homer has been criticised because she has no tax experience. She is married with three children and was previously the top civil servant in the Department for Transport.’
Lin Homer, HMRC’s recently appointed Chief Executive Officer, was ranked seventh in a list of 100 ‘people to watch in 2012’ published in The Times today – just ahead of the Duchess of Cambridge, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Charles Dickens.
The list, headed by Danny Boyle – the film-maker in charge of designing the opening and closing ceremonies at the London Olympics – appears to have dismayed some readers.
‘Who can be in the top 10 above the PM, Deputy PM and the Chancellor? Not the Queen or Barack Obama, it seems,’ one reader asked.
But there is no doubt that Homer faces a tough challenge. David Wighton, the paper’s chief business commentator, noted that ‘managing Britain’s tax collectors is a tough job at any time but Revenue & Customs is under pressure to justify the deals that it has made with big companies and has the lowest morale of any Whitehall department’.
He added: ‘The appointment of Ms Homer has been criticised because she has no tax experience. She is married with three children and was previously the top civil servant in the Department for Transport.’
