Fujitsu’s CEO in Europe, Paul Patterson, is stepping down from his role at the troubled IT giant, in the aftermath of the Post Office scandal.
He will avoid having to lead the company during the huge backlash which is likely to come when the Post Office public inquiry lays bare Fujitsu’s share of the blame for the suffering of subpostmasters caused as a result of the company’s flawed Horizon software. The inquiry’s second and main report is expected later this year, as is an announcement from Fujitsu about how much of the costs of the scandal it will pay.
Patterson, who joined Fujitsu in early 2010 in a senior sales role, became European boss in 2019.
Computer Weekly has learned that Patterson will remain with the company in a non-executive position, with an executive at its Japan headquarters taking over his role.
“He has fallen on his sword early,” said a source at Fujitsu.
A Fujitsu spokesperson said: “Paul Patterson will step down as CEO Europe in March 2026. We are pleased to confirm he has been appointed non-executive chairman of Fujitsu UK, enabling him to continue managing the company’s response to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry.”
Post Office scandal victim and campaigner Lee Castleton recently called on Patterson, to stop being a “bystander” and be a “leader”.
“Patterson has been in a position for much longer than any other head,” he said. “The Post Office CEO is new to the role, as is the minister. Patterson should be a leader, not a bystander. It is the same denial playbook. They denied faults, they denied remote access, they denied wrongdoing and they deny the damage they have done to innocents.
“Playing the ‘I won’t admit anything’ card ‘until I have no choice’ is abhorrent and not the honest way forward. It’s integrity and honesty that is needed, not denial and obstruction.”
Also read: Fujitsu boss has been a Post Office scandal bystander for over a decade
In January 2024, in the aftermath of ITV’s dramatisation of the Post Office scandal, Patterson apologised on behalf of the supplier and told MPs the company is morally obligated to contribute towards the financial redress of victims of the scandal. Two years later, the supplier is yet to pay a penny.
Patterson also said Fujitsu would bar itself from bidding for government contracts, but the supplier has continued to rake in hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money through government deals. The company’s management even told staff how to get around its own bidding ban.
Patterson was at Fujitsu through many of the years it kept quiet about the software problems, which caused unexplained losses in Post Office branches that subpostmasters were blamed and punished for. In 2013, he was part of a senior group of executives at the IT supplier monitoring and downplaying press coverage of challenges against the Horizon system.
Campaigner Monsieur Cholet described the boss as “Stonewall Patterson. “He collected his salary and bonuses while subpostmasters lost their homes, their freedom, and in some cases their lives. When victims demanded answers, he stonewalled. When MPs demanded figures, he called transparency ‘inappropriate.’ Patterson wasn’t just a bystander to Britain’s greatest miscarriage of justice—he was an active participant in the machinery of denial.”
The scandal has hit Fujitsu hard, with staff facing uncertainty as the supplier targets 10% cost savings amid a struggling business period, while up to 100 employees will be affected by the recent loss of a major HMRC contract.
The firm has seen its UK public sector business beginning to struggle and has made significant UK workforce reductions in the past two years, but cuts are set to continue.
According to a source, the recent loss of the £245m HMRC Trader Support Service contract will affect up to 100 Fujitsu workers, with TUPE transfers to its replacement supplier Netcompany and cuts expected.
Meanwhile, sources say the company has asked its COO to cut costs by 10%, which could put jobs at risk. There have already been at least 150 job cuts this year, according to one insider.
Computer Weekly first exposed the scandal in 2009, with the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered as a result of the Horizon system (see timeline below.)