E-envoy says: "I swore blind I wouldn't take this job"

He agreed to become e-envoy on an interim basis in October, following the departure of Alex Allan. But Pinder, who was working as a consultant to the Treasury at the time, claimed he wasn't interested in the permanent post.

"I swore blind I wouldn't take the job, but by the time I was approached for an interview by a headhunter I was hooked," he told silicon.com on his first day in the job. "I found I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's enormously challenging."

Pinder spent 18 years at the Inland Revenue before becoming director of operations and technology at Prudential, and later head of IT at Citibank. He has spent the last two years working with high-tech start-ups, including founding online service willregister.com.

Pinder is keen to show his business credentials, a possible reaction to the criticism that his predecessor was too much the civil servant. "Working for yourself teaches you how hard it is to start a business. I've got a lot of sympathy for people out there who are trying to do business," he said.

Lunch on his first day in the job was spent with Michael Dell, who was invited by Pinder to tell civil service heads about the difficulties of running an ebusiness.

The new e-envoy hopes his enthusiasm will encourage others to get excited about e-government and its possibilities. He says the government will not only hit its 2005 deadline for getting services online, but will do it in style. "We want to offer services not just brochures online. I really want to get interactive services which are interesting and joined-up," he said.

He is putting universal access to the web at the top of his list of priorities.

Pinder said the digital divide could widen unless the government takes immediate steps. "A lot of effort is going into making sure the disadvantaged part of the population has access, skills and the confidence to get online," he said.

For the full interview with Andrew Pinder watch next Thursday's Agenda Setter programme.