This year has been a year of political and economic turmoil around the world – and one where the top technology companies have doubled down on building artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities they hope will boost user productivity once IT buyers can focus with more confidence on their long-term strategies.
Digital, data and technology leaders have had to absorb and test the potential for AI in their organisations while keeping a tight rein on costs. It’s been a year where data has often been the driving force in decision-making – but also where public fears over data protection, privacy and security have brought pause and reflection about how well those data strategies will deliver.
Computer Weekly is privileged to get access to some of the top technology leaders in the world – and the details they share make fascinating reading for anyone looking to develop and implement an IT strategy to improve their business, support employees and enhance their careers.
Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 interviews with IT leaders in 2024:
You know the technology behind the Olympic and Paralympic Games is in good hands when it’s run by a former athletics world record holder and three-time Olympian. Bruno Marie-Rose, chief information and technology officer of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, is not your average digital leader. He spoke to Computer Weekly just a month after his team delivered the technology systems for a hugely successful Games.
Being chief data and information officer at EasyJet means running one of the biggest e-commerce operations in the UK, at the same time as overseeing the IT behind the world’s eighth-largest airline. “You’ve got the real high energy, high speed, high cadence of an e-commerce, digital environment. But then you also have a very safety-conscious, highly regulated airline operation, with 15,000 crew and 30 bases, multilingual, having to run the day-to-day operations, subject to weather, regulations, all the rest,” says Stuart Birrell. “Bringing all that together in one organisation is a huge challenge.”
Working with wild gorillas and rescue gibbons isn’t the traditional route into a career in data and technology. But for Johanna Hutchinson, chief data officer (CDO) at BAE Systems, it made perfect sense: “The essence of good scientific training is hypothesis testing and asking questions. This is where my interest in data comes from.” Hutchinson is working at the bleeding edge of the sector, watching the developments of its technology partners to see what that enables the business to do next.
Caroline Bellamy is a director of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and its first CDO – even she found coming into a leadership role in defence a challenging situation, joining as part of an under-represented community of female senior leaders. Bellamy notes that if the data the MoD uses to build algorithms and make decisions is not representative of all the people the organisation is serving or the entire population it’s trying to understand, then it will fail.
Every digital leader likes to think their work helps boost a greater cause. For James Fleming, CIO at the Francis Crick Institute, that value-adding element is a core part of his job. “I go to sleep at night thinking that I’m helping cure cancer with computers,” he says. More than 2,000 staff and students at the Crick use their wide-ranging knowledge and expertise to work across disciplines and explore biology at all levels, from molecules through cells to entire organisms.
CIO Andy Gamble acknowledges that artificial intelligence has been used at Currys for years, in forecasting and replenishment, product pricing, and to understand more about its customers. But what is new and fuelling excitement at Currys is the generative strand of it. While many technological fads have been and gone, or never quite found their role in retail, GenAI is perceived to be different.
Like the pilots he helps to serve, Nick Woods always has one eye on the horizon. But as CIO for Manchester Airports Group (MAG), Woods is looking for data-led technologies that will help his business develop a competitive edge in operational activities and customer experiences. “Our mission is to be the world’s most intelligent airports,” he says of the group, which is the largest UK airport operator and runs Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports.
Nigel Richardson has three main priorities as PepsiCo’s European CIO. First, using digital and data to grow the business sustainably in a range of key areas, such as customer engagement, supply chain relationships and back-office operations. Second, dealing with core IT concerns, including infrastructure, enterprise resource planning, and the modernisation of systems. His third priority is developing capability.
It’s almost become a cliché to say that data is the lifeblood of the modern enterprise. However, Claire Thompson, group chief data and analytics officer at financial services firm L&G, says data has always been crucial to big firms. What’s changed during the past few years, particularly in her sector, is a recognition of the game-changing power of information. “We’ve always been doing stuff with data,” she says. “What has changed is there has been a realisation of the value that data can bring to an organisation when it’s used differently.”
Craig Donald – somewhat surprisingly, perhaps – isn’t a big fan of football, so he can’t match the finer details of the England football coaches’ management approach to his personal leadership style. What he is dedicated to, however, is developing the right culture, which is something that would resonate with any leader who excels in their field. “This is the best job I’ve ever had, even though I’m not a huge football fan. A big part of the enjoyment has been being able to build up the right culture within the technology team and across the organisation,” he says.