Computing's Top 100 CIOs

METHODOLOGY

TOP 100 CIOs

91-100

81-90

71-80

61-70

51-60

41-50

31-40

21-30

11-20

TOP 10

Computing is all about the IT leader – whether that's the CIO, CTO, IT director, chief architect or any one of dozens of other titles. Having spoken to hundreds of IT leaders over the last 12 months and beyond, we feel well qualified to produce the definitive rankings for the top 100 IT leaders in the UK. To produce this list we took into account factors like size of organisation, size of department, annual budget, duration in role and level of transformation achieved. Then, in consultation with industry experts, we undertook the incredibly challenging task of producing the final list - a task which became ever trickier the closer to the top we got. Do you feel you should be on this list? Should you be placed higher? Email Lydia.Szulc-Krzyzanowska@incisivemedia.com to arrange an interview and next year, it could be you at the top.

Adam Gerrard/CIO/Yodel

Kumar joined Eve Sleep as CIO in May 2016. Previously he was group IT director at Snow & Rock, where he faced a number of challenges in supporting that growth, such as providing systems that can scale as the company expands, while implementing projects enabling, for example, shop floor staff to be able to take orders over tablet computers. "We want staff to do more with them than just ringing up the sales.... we want it to be an effective selling tool to showcase products, check stock or arrange deliveries."

Shiva Kumar/Consulting CIO/Eve Sleep

Hall has been overseeing Next plc's technology since July 2013. Previously he has worked at IBM and Freeman Grattan Holdings.

Nigel Hall/IT director/Next

Cooper has been at Burton's Biscuit Company since 2011. He is also director and vice chair of the UK & Ireland SAP User Group.

Paul Cooper/Head of IS governance & resiliency/Burton's Biscuits

Andrew Turner was brought in as CIO of High Speed Two Ltd in January 2017. Previously he was IT director at Crossrail.

Andrew Turner/CIO/HS2

Davis joined the Francis Crick Institute (a UK-based centre of biomedical research and innovation) in 2013. It is a registered charity whose purpose is to conduct biomedical research into all aspects of human health and disease.

Alison Davis/Director of ICT/ The Francis Crick Institute

O'Rourke has 23 years experience in the telecommunications and information technology industries focusing on Operations Management, Technology Implementation and Business Transformation. He has been CIO at Telefonica Digital for just over two years. He is a strong proponent of software as a service, and cloud services generally: “Our view is that on-premise or cloud nets out pretty even, but cloud works out better in terms of agility and flexibility,” he told Computing recently.

Brendan O'Rourke/CIO/Telefonica

Ashworth joined Hermes as CIO in August 2016. Previously he was brought in as IT Director at Genting Casinos to oversee a massive change project for the company’s IT. That included a project to replace a legacy IT infrastructure with a new, flexible system that allows Genting to monitor and personalise the entire customer journey. "The more you use the resort, the more we understand about you and we can tailor your experience,” Ashworth told Computing.

Chris Ashworth/IT director/Hermes

As head of IT for Holiday Extras, it’s Turner’s responsibility to make life as easy as possible for customers, something which saw the firm shift its infrastructure to the cloud. "I can sit there and say 'today is going to be busy, so I'll boost my infrastructure again' and then I can kill it the day after. To have that flexibility is very good,” he told Computing

Damien Turner/Head of IT/ Holiday Extras

The Department of Health is driving the NHS towards being a completely paperless organisation. But while many hospitals are struggling with this concept, Jones and Northern Devon NHS Trust have openly embraced it. The transformation, which has seen staff equipped with Android tablets, has been fast.

Geoff Smith/CTO/ Northern Devon NHS Trust

Handling IT strategy following the merger that created Yodel, Gerrard has got to grips with a smooth cost-saving process that has also allowed Yodel to start making a serious play in the analytics space. Don’t try to contact him on Black Friday on any given year, because he has absolutely no time to reply.

100

Alan Shields/Architect team manager/LGSS

Support services company Babcock operates across the world, presenting a huge challenge to Parker, who has been CIO at the company for the past five years. As CIO, he has upgraded networking and storage, but resisted the temptation of outsourcing, with about 80 per cent of IT staff – around 650 people – directly employed.

Simon Parker/CIO/Babcock

As head of IT for an organisation which represents 1.4 million members, it’s essential that Mease ensures everyone in the organisation is properly equipped with the right tools. That’s been partially achieved by replacing legacy BlackBerry smartphones with iPhones. “The latest devices that have come from BlackBerry and the cost of them doesn't warrant us continuing with them,” Mease told Computing.

Paul Mease/Director of IT/Unite

O'Riordan joined the Financial Times in February 2016, where she is responsible for product and technology across the group, leading platform and product strategy, development and operations.

Cait O'Riordan/CIO/The Financial Times

Munn has overall responsibility for IT Service at the GLA including: programme delivery, operations, support, voice and data networks, back-office services, systems integration and development.

David Munn/Head of IT/Greater London Authority

McNally has been CIO of aviation firm Meggitt since 2015. Previously she was CIO of McDonald's Europe, where she enabled the transformation of the customer experience through the adoption of digital technologies such as in-store kiosks and tablets.

Emer McNally/CIO/Meggitt

Joining British Gas from TalkTalk Residential in 2011, Cooper focused his energies on defining strategy and transformation of the Centrica group’s IS capability, which was another of his core responsibilities in the role. He is bringing his past work at TalkTalk into a new focus on new technologies.

David Cooper/CIO/British Gas

Hill joined Exeter in January 2016 following a long career in the army where he held many technology focused roles, finshing with 'Head of operate and defend', a CIO-level role.

Alan Hill/CIO/University of Exeter

Brocklehurst has been CIO at Surrey County Council for two and a half years. He has a history in local government IT, having previously worked for the London Borough of Hounslow, and West Sussex County Council. Today, he manages a budget of £24m, with over 150 staff.

Paul Brocklehurst/CIO/Surrey CC

Barsby joined supermarket chain Morrisons in August 2016. Previously she was CIO at Halfords for three and a half years.

Anna Barsby/Chief technology director/Morrisons

After five years overseeing IT strategy for Cambridgeshire County Council, Shields is now managing the architecture team for Cambridge and Northamptonshire councils LGSS shared services ventures. He is an expert in mobile computing and unified communications, and is never afraid to speak his mind about either

Gerhard Naegele/IS director/ Volkwagen UK

Turfrey joined the BMA in February 2016. Previously he was IT director at City & Guilds, where he led a team of 103 people, and was responsible for a £10m budget.

Ian Turfrey/Group CIO/BMA

Dunscombe, who has held a number of roles within the NHS, has been CIO of her current organisation for almost one and a half years. She is also deputy chair of the Health CIO Network.

Rachel Dunscombe/CIO/Salford Royal Foundation Trust

Max Currie has moved from his rule as US CIO and head of IS service delivery of National Grid to the UK CIO role in 2016. He has been at the organisation for six years having held senior IT roles at BP and Barclays.

Max Currie/UK CIO/National Grid

Gibbons has served as CIO of the construction and building materials firm Aggregate Industries for almost nine years and is in the midst of a big push to revamp its IT infrastructure to more power to end users as part of a wider digital mobilisation initiative. “We've got to start empowering and trusting our employees with better tools,” he told Computing.

Mike Gibbons/CIO/Aggregate Industries

Heading up IT services in one of the more deprived areas of the country, Jackman is an advocate for digital access and learning, believing not just infrastructure, but web presence and clear strategy are key to securing the UK’s digital future. He has helped create the Dynamo group for ICT professionals in the UK, which has 25,000 members and is growing.

Phil Jackman/Head of ICT/Durham CC

Peers joined Linklaters in May 2015 following three and a half years as CIO at Deloitte. In his previous role at Deloitte he was in charge of a Windows 8.1 rollout in 2014, and he leveraged more cloud services as its clients’ scepticism of the cloud softened.

Matt Peers/CIO/Linklaters

Since joining Pret A Manager in 2011, Chalklin has constantly been looking at ways to improve services for both staff and customers. One way that’s been achieved is through the deployment of iPhones and iPads to employees, something which he told Computing has "blended into staff's natural working life.” Mobile is also key to engagement with customers, with Chalklin’s work on the app and website brining coffee lovers back for more

Andy Chalklin/Director of IT/ Pret A Manger

Co-founder of Autotrader.co.uk, Jones, joined moneySupermarket.com as Group July 2013. His responsibilities include leading the technology strategy at the firm, developing the engineering talent and capabilities within the group as well as looking after the day-today operations of the It function.

Tim Jones/Group CIO/ moneysupermarket.com

Cammish has been working hard to remove "legacy" vendors such as IBM from the world's largest thread manufacturer. He said Microsoft has changed the way it works and is one of Coats plc's strongest partners, while SAP needs to improve before it is giving its marching orders the same way as IBM was.

Richard Cammish/Global CIO/Coats

Naegele paved the way for Volkswagen UK to turn the corner from ‘keeping the lights on’ to a far wider vision and a huge restructure From MD level down. He says the IT department is now less a target of criticism and more a place where all employees feel they can come to take part in collaborative action.

Johnny Wooldridge/Director of development and operations/EE

"Making sure the experience between the mobile device and the desktop is joined up" forms one of the key marks of success for Bedos, something which he’s achieved at Hotels.com. By using mobile and big data technology, Hotels.com users are able to pick up from where they left off any time they return to the site. And returning, they most definitely are, of the figure of 35 million app downloads is anything to go by.

Thierry Bedos/CTO/hotels.com

McGrath began her role at KPMG in 2012, and quickly went to work to bring the technology up to date at the firm. She created an IT strategy that involved rolling out 12,000 new hybrid laptop-tablet devices. She has since worked with her peers to determine what the company will do next with its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Edel McGrath/CIO/KPMG UK

Rees is IT director at Domino’s UK, a position he has held for more than five years. He sees the role as having changed dramatically from one concerned primarily with ‘keeping the lights on’ to a job synonymous with innovation and business change.

Colin Rees/CIO/Dominos Pizza

Light has been in her current role, which is analoguous to the CIO position, since November 2015. She is responsible for managing the work of all Systems Delivery teams in determining Channel 4’s Technology roadmap and delivering the associated projects and programmes across all areas of the business.

Charlotte Light/Controller of system delivery/Channel 4

Richard Giles/CTO/Ladbrokes Coral

Giles took on the overall CTO role at Ladbrokes Coral following the merger of the two giant betting firms in late 2016. Previously he was CTO at Ladbrokes for two and a half years, having previously been CIO of digitallook.com.

In a career at BT since 1981, Selley has technically spearheaded many of BT’s recent major technology projects, including the company’s TV Launch. Clive is also CEO of the BT Technoloy, Service and Operations Group.

Clive Selley/CIO/BT Group

Long-term BBC employee Postgate landed the CTO role in August 2014, adding Product to his title in Augst 2016. He took over the technology leadership from previous incumbent John Linwood.

Matthew Postgate/Chief technology & product officer/BBC

"When I joined JLT in 2009, we were probably better described as international rather than global and that was reflected in the way our technology was organised," Cohen told Computing, describing IT as "hampered by a failing first generation infrastructure outsource" Fast forward six years and through Cohen’s leadership, the firm has gone through a ground up rebuild that’s allowed it to build towards “global technology capability”

Ian Cohen/Group CIO/JLT Group

Haywood has been COO at Internet and catalogue retaierN Brown plc for two and a half years. Previously he spent two years as Group CIO of the Co Operative Group, and two years as IT director at Boots.

Andy Haywood/Group COO/N Brown

Wooldridge joined EE in October 2016. Previously he was brought in from Marks & Spencer to help Cambridge Satchel Co grow from a £10m company to a 100m company, filling its CTO role.

John Lee/CTO/Metal Exchange

Carr joined Amec Foster Wheeler as CIO in August 2016. Previously he was IS leader for the oil, gas, trading and generation business of Centrica, and also responsible for corporate/Group IT.

Rob Carr/CIO/Amec Foster Wheeler

Millward has served as CIO of BAE Systems for almost five years, with a role with ultimate responsibility for Information Management and Technology across what is Britain’s biggest defence manufacturer. He was previously the group's Managing Director Military & Technical Services.

Steve Millward/Global CIO/BAE

After six years at Nissan, Kneebone was made CIO in 2012. He’s has experience as a Programme Manager, General Manager for Organisation Development and General Manager of External Affairs in Europe. Kneebone has to manage a team of 250, and has recently worked on a lengthy project to consolidate Nissan’s systems and infrastructure.

Stephen Kneebone/CIO/Nissan

With a long career in waste industry IT, Gooding has emerged from a complex series of mergers heading up IT at the sector’s leading firm. His greatest achievement is overhauling and upgrading Biffa’s Unix-based IBM central system, making huge cost savings in adapting and expanding, rather than replacing.

David Gooding/Group IT director/Biffa

Grocery chain Sainsbury's is currently in the midst of a wide-ranging technology update – up until about a year ago, it even ran ageing PCs running Windows XP. Rudoe, in charge of Sainsbury's online unit since July 2011, was appointed to his new role in February with a brief t everything we do to serve our customers.”

Jon Rudoe/Digital & technology director/Sainbury's

Gill has been at luxury watch retailer Watchfinder for over 11 years, joining it as a start-up and overseeing the growth in the company's IT systems to support a global online and bricks-and-mortar retailing network during that time. Most recently, he has overseen shifts from in-house IT to Amazon Web Services, and then from AWS to Microsoft Azure in order to take advantage of Microsoft's machine-learning technology.

Jonathan Gill/IT director/Watchfinder

Cooklin has been group CIO at Network Rail for over six years, where she leads a complex technology and shared services portfolio, focusing on reducing the cost of running the railway by 25 per cent by 2019. She also holds non exutive director positions at Leeds Building Society and Leeds Metropolitan University.

Susan Cooklin/Group CIO/Network Rail

Sackman joined Waitrose in 2016, having previously spent 4 years as CIO at Argos. A member of Waitrose management board, he is accountable for the delivery of technology strategy, business programme delivery and IT operational services at Waitrose.

Mike Sackman/IT director/Waitrose

Appointed by team owner Sir Frank Williams to implement a full-scale IT transformation, Hackland has overseen delivery of a number of complex projects and brings innovative ideas as to how IT can aid the team’s performance. “If we're not at the forefront of technology as a team, we won't win,” he told Computing.

Graeme Hackland/CIO/Williams F1 Team

Lee joined the London Metal Exchange in January 2015. He is responsible for Information Technology at the LME and reports to the CEO. He is also a member of the LME Executive Committee.

Ed Garcez/CIO/Tri-Borough

Morris took over the role from previous incumbent Catherine Doran in May 2016. His last role was the EquaTerra executive for European & Asian operations, previously CEO and founding member of Morgan Chambers. He is a highly accomplished C level consultant with over 25 years of ICT and Business Process Outsourcing experience.

Phil Morris/Group CIO (interim)/Royal Mail

Lomas has successfully started the company’s transition into the cloud, while reorganising his IT teams into small product-focused teams. This allows engineers, analysts and project managers to work on tightly-focused goals, that have reached proven results. He is also achieving high levels of success with open source databases.

James Lomas/IT director/ comparethemarket.com

Marshall has been at the Co Operative Group since 1998, becoming Retail Group CIO in February 2015. She is currently accountable for IT Architecture, Plan, Build and Run functions across Food, E-Store and Estates.

Cheryl Marshall/Retail group CIO/ The Co-Operative Group

Hughes joined JCB in March 2016. Previously he was CTO of Laterooms.com, a post he held for two and a half years. He is focusing on IT transformation in his current role.

Stuart Hughes/Group CIO/JCB

Moran was appointed Global CIO of Unilever in June 2014. She previously worked at Thomson Reuters in several different roles. First, she was VP of Business Systems at Thomson Financial, before becoming CIO of Thompson Financial in 2006. She then became CIO of the Markets Division in April 2008, before becoming Global CIO of Thompson Reuters in October 2010.

Jane Moran/CIO/Unilever

Hambling has been CIO at insurance market Lloyd's for over eight years. In that time he has re-engineered the Lloyd's data warehouses and data martks, migrated all legacy process & data, and rapidly expanded to meet new demands.

Peter Hambling/CIO/Lloyds of London

Shop Direct Group CIO Wolfe has been hard at work on several different IT projects, including a 'personalised sort order' trial in which customers are targeted with products that fit their history and preferences. The firm used a combination of Hadoop, for which it uses the Hortonworks distribution and SAS analytics to analyse a customer's previous transactions and preferences, so that it could use them to show specific products to consumers first with the aim of increasing sales and customer satisfaction.

Andy Wolfe/CIO/Shop Direct

Flannigan joined EDF Energy as CIO in November 2016. Previously she was CIO at the National Trust for over five years, where she was responsible for all Information Technology and Information Systems infrastructure and for leading a major pan-Trust transformation programme, which aims to grow customer engagement and reduce internal inefficiency.

Sarah Flannigan/CIO/EDF Energy

Capital One might be a US-based financial institution, but it is well-established in the UK. Indeed, Harding joined Capital One as a member of its IT team in 1999 and worked his way up to become CIO in 2010. As CIO, Harding has masterminded an “innovation programme”, which saw the implementation of a new workflow engine to improve the company's adaptability and a refresh of Capital One's Nottingham data centre.

Rob Harding/CIO/Capital One

Garcez has the difficult task of being the CIO of three councils, a role which he started last year. He has been busy putting his stamp on the 'tri-borough' by restructuring the IT teams, doing more business with SMEs, and trying to get more out of big data.

Tom Clark/CIO/Leeds Building Society

Taylor joined the Telegraph Media Group as CIO in January 2016. Previously he was CIO, then COO at News UK. There, he led three major projects to modernise News UK's technology and processes including a £30m programme dubbed Newsroom 360 which aims to reorganise the newsrooms of The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times and re-engineer them from the ground up.

Chris Taylor/CIO/Telegraph Media Group

McCallum is the chief information officer and a member of the management board at the Metropolitan Police Service, (MPS), directly responsible for leading Digital Policing; and as a member of the Management Board playing a role in the leadership of the MPS

Angus McCallum/CIO/Met Police

Goulding joined Aviva in April 2016. He was previously at Paddy Power, where Goulding transformed the organisation's IT infrastructure to focus on a smaller number of initiatives.

Fin Goulding/CIO/Aviva

Cronin is Executive Director responsible for IS Governance, Policy, Risk & Reporting; Business Resiliency and Supplier Assurance functions across the firm, managing multi-skilled, multi-locational teams to support MSCI businesses and clients globally.

John Cronin/Head of IS governance and resiliency/MSCI

In August 2016, Coby was promoted to be John Lewis' first CIO, having been IT director at the retail organisation for over four years. He also holds a position as chair of SITA, the air transport telecommunications and IT solutions firm. He was CIO of British Airways for eight years, where he was responsible for all IT operations and technology strategy.

Paul Coby/CIO/John Lewis Partnership

Jackson has been CIO at the London Borough of Camden for 12 years. Clearly this is a man who enjoys his job. “I find the public sector refreshingly innovative, and in my career so far I've had opportunities to take part in some really big stuff…”

John Jackson/CIO/Camden LBC

Stein believes he has brought two main areas of expertise to RB; cyber security and data. He is currently running a digital transformation initiative dubbed the 'Connected Company Programme' which involves connecting all of the company's data sources, while he is also modernising the firm's core infrastucture and looking into new areas such as the Internet of Things.

Darrell Stein/CIO/Reckitt Benckiser

Holt joined the Trainline in March 2014, having previously worked as CTO of IP software specialist CPA Global. A cloud enthusiast, Holt has outsourced much of his organisation's IT to Amazon.

Mark Holt/CTO/Trainline

One of Faiers biggest achievements in his role to date is in changing the mindset of his teams. "Traditionally IT were do-ers but I saw that we needed to be consultants. Rather than simply receiving a request to ‘do’ something, we wanted to consult to ensure that we implemented what was required rather than what customers thought they needed."

Mike Faiers/Director, ebusiness/BSH

Clark is responsible for strategy, risk, performance and people. He also has functional responsibilities for IT Services and Operations including outsourced arrangements; IT Systems development and change; and Business change management and project delivery.

Phil Pavitt/Global CIO/Specsavers

As head of ICT for Hillarys, Bond doesn't just have to support the IT required of a UK manufacturer of shutters and blinds, but also a contact centre, a mobile workforce and high-traffic commerce websites. “It was about interacting with customers in the way that they want to be communicated with, whether that be by phone, email, social media or web chat.”

Julian Bond/Head of ICT/Hillarys

Chima joined Burberry as CIO in December 2015. Previously she had been at Walmart since 2010, filling a variety of roles including CIO for the Asia region.

Fumbi Chima/CIO/Burberry

Wilde is CIO at Essex County Council having moved from Westminster Council over 3 years ago. He says he can’t see himself working anywhere but the public sector. Wilde hass expanded on his CIO role 6 months ago having been given responsibility for Place Operations at Essex Countly Council where he has been for 4 years.

David Wilde/CIO/Essex CC

Fahy joined his current firm in February 2016. Previously he was at Net a Porter. Reporting to the CEO, he leads the fast-growing Digital Product, Programme, Software Engineering, Technology Operations and Data & Decision Science functions.

Hugh Fahy/CTO/ notonthehighstreet.com

Croft has been CIO at the Salvation Army UK for over seven years. He is also the co-founder of the Charities Security Forum. He recently warned Computing about some organisations placing blind faith in the cloud when it comes to sensitive data: "I'd agree you can't outsource risk, and shouldn't even try. It's a bit of a fool's paradise."

Martyn Croft/CIO/Salvation Army

Wilkinson was appointed to her role as Home Office Chief Digital, Data and Technology Officer in February 2015. She is also currently a non executive director at the Police ICT company.

Sarah Wilkinson/CIO/The Home Office

Dearnley joined Premium Credit Ltd in October 2016. Previously he was at HMRC. When he joined HMRC from Vodafone, he must have known about the huge challenge that would await him at the tax office: the winding down of the Aspire mega-outsourcing contract and its replacement by a series of smaller contracts, more closely managed by Dearnley's team at HMRC. Dearnley is currently putting the business case together – which will no doubt be critically appraised by the Public Accounts Committee.

Mark Dearnley/CIO/Premium Credit

As part of the senior management team, Burroughs is responsible for the IT and Procurement functions across The FA. Previously he spent 18 years at United Biscuits, where he was Group IT and Procurement Director.

Clifford Burroughs/CTO/The FA

Scott joined Ferrero in October 2016. Previously she was at Mars for three years, after spending over three years at Baker Hughes as Vice President of IT. She focuses on developing high performing teams, managing ERP programmes as well as looking after the overall IT strategy at Mars.

Jane Scott/Group CIO/Ferrero

Pavitt became Global CIO of Specsavers in June 2015. He has been working with his team on transforming the company digitally. "It's not necessarily about increasing footfall but it's about increasing the surety of the footfall" he told Computing earlier this year. Pavitt has also been aiming to reduce the firm's reliance on third parties as well as improving the customer experience in stores using technology.

William Smart/CIO/NHS

Anyone who thinks online retailing is a piece of cake should take a look at what Clarke is developing at Ocado: automated warehouses, robotics, artificial vision systems and much that must remain secret. Clarke's technology. “This is conceptual stuff, but it’s not an indulgence. It’s absolutely essential in order for us to maintain the disruptive lead we have over everybody else,” says Clarke.

Paul Clarke/CTO/Ocado

Warner was rewarded for his outstanding work at insurance company LV= in 2013 with the CIO of the Year accolade at the UK IT Industry Awards 2013. Warner has been involved in huge IT projects including refreshing LV=’s IT infrastructure and rolling out Windows 7. He has been focussed on trying to leverage new and emerging technologies for the insurer and trying out new ways of working, including using agile methodologies.

Richard Warner/Group CIO/LV=

Cross is now not only CIO, but CDO of the engineering juggernaut Atkins. Cross aims to ensure that all of the company's systems are in the cloud in five years' time, and that 'digital' and 'agile' are the default way of working.

Richard Cross/CIO & CDO/Atkins

With a strong media and digital focus Attridge is responsible for MEC’s global technology strategy and vision, a position he has held for almost four years. He enjoys the centrality of the CIO role in the digital age. "As CIOs I think we're uniquely positioned across the business because we're hyper connected and see everything that's going on in all facets of the business," he said.

Trevor Attridge/Global data and technology director/MEC

Liam Maxwell is the National Technology Adviser for HM Government. Liam’s role is to create the conditions to make the UK the best place for business to invest in technology and to ensure the civil service can make the best use of emerging technologies to deliver effective digital government.

Liam Maxwell/National technology adviser/HM Government

Townsend has been busy tying up deals with suppliers this year in a bid to improve the IT at TfL. TfL has signed a £6.5m deal with O2 for mobile networking services, and has also signed a £6m deal with Atos for a service desk solution. It has also appointed 12 suppliers onto its IT solutions framework including CSC, Infosys and Sopra Steria.

Steve Townsend/CIO/TfL

Since joining Virgin Active, Caddy has been focused on digitising the customer service it provides to its members. This is a process that involves communicating with its customers and bringing up-to-date the company's internal systems and processes.

Andy Caddy/Group CIO/Virgin Active

Murray joined AXA UK in September 2010 after working at AXA US for six years. One of his key focuses at the moment is how the insurer can squeeze as much value as possible from the data AXA has at its disposal. This included a data-enrichment programme using customer-scoring data to deliver personalised quotes to the broker market.

Kevin Murray/Group CIO and COO/AXA

Now more than 4 years into his tenure at construction firm Kier Group, CIO Stott has lost none of the enthusiasm that led him to the role. “I love the adventure and the exploration of going into new places.. We are living in a technology revolution, and frankly, the CIO has got the best job of all,” he says.

Duncan Stott/CIO/Kier Group

Smart became NHS England's CIO in August 2016. Previously he was director of information management and technology, responsible for overseeing IT strategy at Royal Free London.

Former Reed.co.uk CIO, Ridley is now group CTO at Blenheim Chalcot Accelerate, part of the UK's most successful venture builder. Working with the CEOs and CTOs of Blenheim Chalcot ventures, he helps the group's businesses succeed faster through the application of technology, innovation and focused strategy.

Mark Ridley/CIO/ Blenheim Chalcot Accelerate

Patterson was seconded from Government Digital Service to lead DVLA's IT digital transformation, and after tremendous success he has been promoted to the Cabinet Office. During his time at DVLA, Patterson completely changed the way the department dealt with Oracle, shifting away from relying on a systems integrator and dealing directly with the vendor to reduce its licence footprint.

Iain Patterson/Director of common technology/Government Digital Service

Ewen arrived at his post 4 years ago from Premier Farnell. A life-long learner he is a strong believer in learning from mistakes then moving on. “As you progress in an organisation, the need for lifelong learning is absolutely paramount. I make mistakes all the time and I’m learning all the time. In such a fast-moving world it’s dangerous to apply rules of the past to the world of the future,” he says.

Charles Ewen/CIO/Met Office

Now at Drax Group, Robbins spent five years at Northumbrian Water Group, where he reported directly to the CEO, Robbins leading a team of 165 people with an annual budget of £30m. In this post he delivered £10m of capital efficiencies and worked with business leaders to deliver £30m+ operational efficiency.

James Robins/CIO/Drax Group

Davies joined the company in 2008, and his risen through the ranks from backroom to boardroom in just a few short years. Completely overhauling an ancient and unstable mainframe system to a fast, clean and paperless way of operating, David won CIO of the Year in Computing’s UK IT Awards 2014.

David Davies/IT director/ Hargreaves Lansdown

Winner of the coveted CIO of the year title at the prestigious UK IT Industry Awards 2016, Prakash has been in his current role for just over two years. His previous firms include Morgan Stanley, Avaya and Sage.

Mayank Prakash/CIO/Department for Work and Pensions

Folkes has been CIO at G4S for three years. A cloud advocate, he says that moving away from owned infrastructure and outsourcing to the cloud, doesn't necessarily mean losing the IT department. "The idea that you don't need tech skills once you move to cloud is a fallacy," he told Computing.

Nick Folkes/Group CIO/G4S

Pearson appointed Hitchcock as its CIO in February 2014. Hitchcock had previously been CIO of Vodafone where he was responsible for the IT teams within Vodafone and its operating companies. Hitchcock is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology – FIET and a Chartered Engineer.

Albert Hitchcock/CIO/Pearson

Scott joined News UK in February 2016, having spent nearly four years previously as CIO of the Financial Times. One of her achievements since the move is creating a 170-person tech team in seven months.

Christina Scott/CTO/News UK

Price joined RSA in 2007 and has worked across emerging markets directorate before being appointed CIO in June 2013. Price has been focused on aiming to ensure that the firm has effective and efficient technology platforms to serve the company’s customers. He has over 15 years’ experience in a range of industries including financial services and consumer goods.

Darren Price/Group CIO/RSA