Ken Jarvis, outgoing CIO of the SA Revenue Service (SARS), this week leaves the IT industry in which he has spent the past 32 years, to start a new venture which is shrouded in mystery.
His last day as SARS CIO will be this Friday, says the 48-year-old Jarvis.
"I will be joining a new company which will not be competing in the IT industry," he reveals, adding that details of the venture will be unavailable for some weeks.
While his new venture involves a dot-com company, Jarvis does not see it as being IT-related.
"All I can say is that it is a dot-com start-up company in the person-to-person space," he says, adding that even though the company will not be involved in IT, he will be the CIO.
Jarvis has been at SARS for three-and-a-half years, during which time he transformed SARS into a globally-recognised IT organisation, with the single view of the taxpayer project being acknowledged worldwide as an example of excellence in transforming public services.
Jarvis received the ICT Leadership award at the 2004 CSSA IT Personality awards in recognition of his work at SARS.
"I can honestly say I've had the most enjoyable and exciting time of my career at SARS - and I believe I've laid the foundation for my successor."
He admits that much still has to be done in the near future in IT at SARS, with a host of tenders to be awarded soon. Jarvis expresses mixed feelings about leaving - being both excited about the future and dismayed about not seeing some of the projects completed.
An acting SARS CIO should be announced before the week's end, he notes.
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