Nick Montagu’s 30 years as a UK civil servant, after starting life as an academic philosopher, included establishing social security executive agencies, and privatising British Rail. As Chairman from 1997, he led the Inland Revenue through the greatest changes in its 200-year history, spearheading the drive to give it a strong customer focus.
Nick’s most recent appointments have been as Chairman of the Financial Ombudsman Service, and of the Council at Queen Mary University of London. Since retiring in 2004, he has also chaired the With-Profits Committee of Aviva UK Life, and served on the Boards of two pension companies and on PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Advisory Board. Nick has written and lectured extensively, including significant development and capacity-building work overseas, on public administration and governance issues, public service reform, social security, public finance and tax administration: he is also a nationally-recognised authority on diversity, for which he had Civil Service-wide responsibility.
