HMRC appoints new Customer Strategy Director General

HM Revenue and Customs Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary Jim Harra has announced that Jonathan Athow has been appointed as the new Director General for the Customer Strategy and Tax Design Group.

This follows the departure of Ruth Stanier from the role as she undertakes a 12-month career break.

Athow is currently Deputy National Statistician and Director General for Economic Statistics at the Office for National Statistics and will join HMRC from the beginning of October.

"I’m pleased that Jonathan Athow will be stepping into this critical leadership role working to build a trusted, modern tax administration system – one that brings in revenue for public services, makes it easy to get it right, is valued and trusted," said Harra.

"HMRC is a department that has done so much to support the country during the pandemic and will be hugely important as the economy recovers in providing the taxation to fund our public services and supporting businesses and people across the UK," said Athow. "I am excited to be joining HMRC and Customer Strategy and Tax Design at this important time."