Gareth Rhys Williams has been the Government Chief Commercial Officer since March 2016 and has been leading the transformation of the government's commercial activities – building the capability of the Government Commercial Function through a program of accreditation and senior recruitment, while delivering improved contract delivery and savings averaging well over £2Bn a year. 

Gareth is an experienced CEO and non executive director, with a consistent record of reinvigorating and reinventing listed and private equity backed companies through creative growth strategies. He has a strong record of driving transformational change in large, complex and federated organisations.

Before joining the Civil Service, Gareth was CEO of PHS Group, a leading provider of outsourced workplace services in the UK. Prior to which he was CEO of Charter International, the FTSE listed engineering group, until its successful sale to Colfax Corporation in 2012, CEO of Capital Safety Group Ltd, since sold to KKR, and CEO of Vitec Group plc, the supplier of broadcast and photographic equipment and services. He originally trained as a production engineer, and has an MBA from Insead.