Andrew Pinder has in fact been the acting e-Envoy since October last year when Alex Allan resigned for personal reasons.
Mr Pinder will work with Patricia Hewitt and Ian McCartney in his role. The job description of Patricia Hewitt, the e-Minister, is to provide “political leadership across Government in driving forward the Government's objectives on e-commerce.” Ian McCartney, the Minister for e-Government, has “particular responsibility within that wider framework for delivery of e-Government objectives.”
The role of Mr Pinder as e-Envoy is described as “galvanising business in the UK to face up to the challenges of e-commerce, to provide strategic input into the development of e-Government, to promote the UK's e-commerce strategy abroad and to ensure that the benefits of e-commerce are spread throughout society.”
Mr Pinder’s background includes 18 years with the Inland Revenue where he helped computerise the PAYE system. He then left to become Director of Operations and Technology at Prudential and also worked for Citibank.
Kieren McCarthy of news site TheRegister.co.uk critically suggests that his confirmation as permanent e-Envoy could be “because no one half-way decent bothered to apply for such an impotent job.”