The former Managing Director of Royal Mail International will now lead the organisation, which was brought under the Home Office and made directly accountable to Ministers last October.
Mr Thomson has spent his entire career at Royal Mail, holding a variety of sales and marketing roles before being promoted to Sales & Customer Services Director and then Media Director.
He was the commercial lead for the Royal Mail/Post Office separation before taking on the role of Managing Director International in 2011. He has also held several non-executive roles for organisations including The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and the former UK Border Agency.
Mr Thomson will take up the role in the spring and the appointment will be for a fixed term of three years.
The Home Office Permanent Under Secretary Mark Sedwill said:
I am pleased to announce that Mark Thomson will take over as Director General of Her Majesty’s Passport Office (HMPO).
Mark brings with him external experience of working in operations that will make him an excellent leader of HMPO and member of the Home Office Executive Management Board.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the current acting Director General Tyson Hepple for his strong leadership of HMPO over the past few months. I know that his work has been hugely valued by colleagues in HMPO, and across the Department more widely.
HMPO ceased to be an Executive Agency on 1 October 2014 when it was brought into the Home Office and made directly accountable to Ministers. As part of this move it was also recommended that the post of Chief Executive be abolished and replaced by a Director General for HMPO to reflect the changes to the organisation.