Jon joined the Ministry of Defence on 5 January 2009 as Director General Finance. Prior to that Jon was Director General, Corporate Services at the Department of Children, Schools and Families. Jon joined the Department for Education and Skills in May 2006 as Director General of Finance to drive financial and resources management in the Department. Following the Capability Review in 2006 his role was enlarged to cover all the corporate services including finance, procurement, estates, IT, human resources and strategy. He led the work on the Spending Review 2007 and since the creation of the Department of Children, Schools and Families in June 2007 has overseen the continued development of the Department and the corporate services transformation programme.
In April 2008 Jon was appointed to the post of Head of the Government Accountancy Service at HM Treasury to lead the financial management and accountancy community across Government. He holds this post together with working at the MOD.
Jon is a qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance (CIPFA), a member of the Chartered Institute of Management and an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.
Jon initially worked through a range of finance posts at Norfolk County Council. After qualifying for CIPFA he moved on to Eagle Star as part of their worldwide business improvement team. In 1993 he joined Ernst & Young to manage their public services consultancy and audit office for the South West.
In 1997 he joined North Somerset Council (a unitary local authority) as the statutory chief financial officer, initially as Assistant Chief Executive responsible for financial strategy. In 2001 his role was widened to Head of Corporate Finance to include all financial services and in 2002 he became Director of Finance & Resources for the Council. His responsibilities included finance, ICT, procurement, council tax, housing benefits and property management. During 2003 the Audit Commission's Comprehensive Performance Assessment gave North Somerset the highest rating for financial management under the national assessment framework.
In September 2004 Jon joined Ofsted as its first ever Finance Director to drive up standards of financial management and corporate governance through a period of significant organisational change. Leading the efficiency drive he achieved a reduction of total costs by 20%.