Chief Executive and Commissioner of Inland Revenue, IRD
13 March 2012
The State Services Commissioner, Iain Rennie, today announced the appointment of Naomi Ferguson to the position of Chief
Executive and Commissioner of Inland Revenue, Inland Revenue Department.
Ms Ferguson is currently Director, Business Customer and Strategy at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in the UK.
Prior to this role, she led the compliance division of HMRC and was responsible for some 18000 staff. She was appointed
to her current role in April 2011.
“Naomi Ferguson is an experienced public sector executive with more than 20 years’ experience working in revenue
agencies in the United Kingdom (UK) and New Zealand. She has successfully delivered major transformational change
projects and built effective teams to deliver results.
“Ms Ferguson has the vision and ability to communicate strategic direction and lead the implementation of cost effective
and efficient services to New Zealanders.
“From 2003 to 2006 Ms Ferguson was the Deputy Commissioner, Service Delivery at the Inland Revenue Department in New
Zealand. While in this role Ms Ferguson introduced the “Customer Insight” function which led the way in New Zealand on
developing an understanding of customers’ requirements in SMEs,” Iain Rennie said.
Prior to her role at IRD, Ms Ferguson was Regional Director, Inland Revenue, Northern Ireland. At that time, this was
the most senior Inland Revenue role in Northern Ireland. In addition, Ms Ferguson worked for Barclays Bank as the Human
Resources, Restructuring and Development Director.
Ms Ferguson has a Master of Arts in English Literature and Sociology from Glasgow University. She has also completed a
Tax Inspector Full Programme qualification.
Ms Ferguson starts on 21 July 2012 following the completion of the term of the current Commissioner, Bob Russell. Ms
Ferguson’s term covers the period until 31 March 2017.
ENDS