Serco's Soames says 'it's time to outsource myself' as he steps down

Government contractor Serco said CEO Rupert Soames would retire in September 2023 and step down at the end of this December. He will be succeeded by Mark Irwin, who is currently the CEO of the company's UK & Europe Division.

"It has been the privilege of my working life to lead Serco for the last eight years, but it is now time for me to outsource myself,” Soames said in a statement.

Anthony Kirby will move from his role as group chief operating officer to become chief executive of Serco's UK & Europe business.

Serco has been a key part of the UK government's policy to outsource public services and is involved in everything from prisons to immigration detention centres. It was also paid more than £600m to run about a fifth of the Covid-19 testing sites and contract-tracing call centre workers, in a programme that repeatedly faced criticism for alleged poor performance as well as concerns over possible tax dodging by subcontractors used by Serco, the Guardian newspaper reported.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti at Sharecast.com