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Liam Maxwell

Liam Maxwell is a British technology executive and public servant. He was the Director of Government Transformation for Amazon Web Services until March 2026.

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Liam Maxwell
UK Chief Technology Officer,
Government Digital Service
In office
December 2012 – April 2016
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
MinisterFrancis Maude (until 2015)
Oliver Letwin (from 2015)
UK National Technology Adviser
In office
April 2016 – 9 August 2018
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Theresa May
MinisterMatt Hancock (Minister for the Cabinet Office) & Ed Vaizey (Minister for the Digital Economy)
Personal details
BornJune 1968 (age 57–58)
Nairobi, Kenya
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
PartyConservative
University of Oxford (MA)

Liam Maxwell (born June 1968) is a British technology executive and public servant. He was the Director of Government Transformation for Amazon Web Services until March 2026.

First serving as a Conservative councillor for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in 2007, Maxwell was the UK's first National Technology Adviser from April 2016 to August 2018.1 He was then the UK's first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) as part of the Government Digital Service from December 2012 until April 2016.

Early life

Maxwell was born June 1968, in Nairobi, Kenya to a mother who was a nurse with the Flying Doctors and a father who was a health officer in the Nairobian government. Maxwell's family moved to the UK in 1970 where he was educated and boarded at Christ's Hospital.2

Maxwell was educated at New College, Oxford and graduated with an MA in Human Sciences in 1991.

Government career

Maxwell was elected in 2007 as a councillor for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and helped develop David Cameron's Big Society project.2

Maxwell was a technology policy adviser to the Conservative Party in the run-up to the general election in 2010, helping write their manifesto.

In June 2011, after the coalition government's formation, Maxwell was appointed as advisor on "ICT futures" to the Efficiency and Reform Group for eleven months, having been had been offered the position by Ian Watmore. Maxwell started the job in September while on sabbatical from a position as Head of Computing Science at Eton College. Maxwell worked in the Cabinet Office under John Suffolk as Government Chief Information Officer and Ian Watmore as Chief Operating Officer of the Efficiency and Reform Group .234

Maxwell was asked to stay on permanently by Francis Maude in November/December, leading to Maxwell leaving his Eton position and becoming a civil servant.2

During his time as an adivsor, Maxwell pushed for the government to use more small and medium enterprises as suppliers, and to use more open source software.56

In April 2012, Maxwell was appointed the new deputy government chief information officer (CIO), following the departure of Bill McCluggage, and now worked under Andy Nelson.7 In December 2012, the remaining IT functions in the ERG were merged with the parallel Government Digital Service. As part of this, Maxwell was appointed as the UK Government's Chief Technology Officer by Stephen Kelly; the role of Government Chief Information Officer was not transferred.89

During his time in GDS, Maxwell established the Digital 5 group of the world's five leading digitally advanced governments, reformed technology spending controls under the "Technology Code of Practice"[1], and led the Public Services Network, Crown Hosting Service and Digital Marketplace programmes.10 In 2014, he committed to staying in the role of CTO until at least 2018.11

In April 2016, it was announced by the Cabinet Office that Maxwell would take on the new position of National Technology Adviser to Matt Hancock, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Ed Vaizey, Minister for the Digital Economy at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.1 In August 2018 the department confirmed that Maxwell was leaving the position in October 2018 to take a job at Amazon.1213

Post-government career

Maxwell served as the Director of Government Transformation at Amazon Web Services from November 2018 until March 2026. Maxwell's role has included working with the Ukrainian government to help them download and move data out of the country after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.14

In March 2026, Maxwell announced that he would be leaving his position at AWS.15

Elections contested

2007 Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council election

Eton and Castle16
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Liam Maxwell 283 52.9 +18.9
Liberal Democrats Richard Pratt 198 37.0 −21.3
Labour George Davidson 54 10.1 +2.4
Majority 85 15.9
Turnout 535 38.6 +8.9
Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats Swing

Personal life

Maxwell is a supporter of Southampton F.C. and Hampshire Cricket Club. He also has a sister.2

References

References

  1. "UK government appoints first National Technology Adviser - Press releases - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  2. "Liam Maxwell". Archives of IT. Retrieved 8 April 2026.
  3. "Tory technology advisor Liam Maxwell appointed to government IT advisory post". ComputerWeekly. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  4. Say, Mark (27 June 2011). "Liam Maxwell appointed to advise on government ICT". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 April 2026.
  5. Best, Jo (15 February 2012). "More SMEs for government suppliers: Liam Maxwell's three-step plan". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 April 2026.
  6. Register, The (10 February 2012). "Time to dispel open source myths, says Liam Maxwell". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 April 2026.
  7. Best, Jo (5 April 2012). "Liam Maxwell appointed new deputy government CIO". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  8. "Government IT leadership team sees major reshuffle". ComputerWeekly. Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  9. "Liam Maxwell named as Government Chief Technology Officer". GOV.UK. Retrieved 8 April 2026.
  10. "Thank you Liam | Government Digital Service". Government Digital Service. 18 April 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  11. Glick, Bryan (26 September 2014). "Government CTO Liam Maxwell commits to GDS until 2018". Computer Weekly. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  12. "Off down the Amazon: DCMS confirms UK national tech advisor Maxwell has resigned". The Register. 9 August 2018. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  13. Kunert, Paul. "UK taxman spent six times more with AWS last year than cloud firm paid in corporation tax". www.theregister.com. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  14. "How Amazon put Ukraine's 'government in a box' — and saved its economy from Russia". The Seattle Times. 26 December 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  15. "I've had a wonderful 7 years at the "tech company done the Amazon way" but it's time to keep growing and I'll be starting an exciting new gig at the start of April. It's been an education, it took me… | Liam Maxwell | 124 comments". LinkedIn. Retrieved 8 April 2026.
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