Tony Singleton, OBE, one of the civil service’s most forward thinking technology evangelists and one of the driving forces behind government’s G-Cloud framework and Digital Marketplace , partners with public sector technology communications and content specialists, Mantis Public Relations.

After 35-years in the civil service, Tony is stepping away, but not leaving the public sector entirely. He will now be focusing on building his own business, Silverhawk Consultancy Services.

Tony will use his 35 years of experience of running some of Government’s most transformative digital programmes to help technology vendors bring their technology ideas into reality; helping them ensure they are fit for purpose for public sector needs; helping them transition into the sector and providing them with commercial and procurement advice on how to be successful in the space.

At Mantis PR Tony will be providing those consultancy services to the agency’s existing client portfolio and assisting Mantis in ensuring its team remains up to speed on what is driving public sector procurement of technology – enabling the client teams to remain relevant and targeted in their campaigns. Tony will also assist Mantis with its own growth ambitions.

Toby Gavin, joint managing director at Mantis comments: “It is an absolute privilege to be working alongside Tony.  For years he has been pivotal to the amazing progress the UK public sector has made in its adoption of technology to improve society, empower citizens, save lives and essentially provide a better future for us all.  These are exciting times for Mantis; we have strong growth ambitions and partnerships like this help us to ensure we can offer our clients additional support and intelligence helping us remain the UK’s only specialised public sector technology PR agency.”

Tony Singleton OBE, comments: “Mantis has over a decade of experience in helping technology vendors increase their awareness and improve their reputation in the UK public sector.  I worked with them during my time as a civil servant and their work is well known and regarded across the sector.

Their client portfolio is first class and I hope to be able to lend my many years of experience of public sector technology to their existing and prospective client base.”

Tony Singleton has twice been named one of the top 50 most influential people in UK IT and has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2014. A graduate of the Cabinet Office’s Major Project Leadership Academy, he was chief operating officer for Directgov from 2006 to 2011, before becoming chief operating officer of the Government Digital Service. From March 2014 he was the G-Cloud and digital commercial programme director, a post he maintained until March 2016. After his pioneering work on Digital Marketplace he was Chief Operating Officer at the BEIS Department and until recently the IFA Set-up Programme Director at the Department for Education.