The outsourcing firm’s chief executive claims to take the trickiest public service work – asylum, prisons, Covid – in his stride, and the returns have certainly been sweet
Rupert Soames was driving north “one dark and stormy night” in late 2013 when an item on the 6pm news made his ears prick up. Serco, the outsourcing giant that had become synonymous with ripping off the taxpayer, had just sacked its chief executive.
“I got on to the headhunter that evening and said, ‘So can I do it? Can I do it?’ I had always wanted to do a turnaround that was very large … but most importantly I wanted to do something in public service.”
