Top 10 IT leadership interviews of 2022
If IT leaders thought they may have a yr of consolidation and an opportunity to catch their breath, after the accelerated digital transformations they led via the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, 2022 confirmed they’d much more to come back.
Boardroom expectations of IT have been reset by the experiences of the earlier two years – gone are the three-year programmes; in are agile, digital initiatives delivering a speedy time to worth. Today’s IT chief – whether or not chief info officer (CIO), chief expertise officer (CTO) or chief digital officer (CDO) – has a cloud-first technique, supporting hybrid working workers, and digitally savvy prospects who anticipate the perfect on-line expertise.
Computer Weekly is grateful to the numerous IT leaders who took the time to debate their plans – it’s an interesting learn for anybody interested by managing a contemporary expertise infrastructure. Here are Computer Weekly’s high 10 interviews with IT leaders in 2022:
1. CIO interview: Carl Dawson, Asda
As the IT handover from Walmart looms, Asda CIO Carl Dawson defined how the enterprise is renewing all of its expertise, placing the retailer within the uncommon place of with the ability to begin from scratch.
As it strikes away from the US large, a big quantity of expertise unfold throughout Asda’s 29 distribution centres and 650 supermarkets – in addition to its on-line remit – must be renewed over the subsequent two years.
“[This means a] brand new e-commerce platform for all of our grocery shopping, all of our supply chain forecasting, buying and merchandising, and a brand new data platform. The real opportunity here is that we can choose all the latest applications, and we can build them all in the cloud,” says Carl Dawson, Asda’s CIO.
2. CIO interview: Oleg Polovynko, Kyiv City Council
Kyiv City Council’s IT group has skilled challenges confronted by no different tech division, and is set to make use of what it has learnt to take Ukraine ahead when the conflict is over.
Turning a transport reserving service into an air raid alert system shouldn’t be the standard activity of a CIO, however that’s what the IT chief at Kyiv City Council was compelled to do within the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
When Russian tanks entered Ukraine in February and missiles rained down on cities, the IT group at Kyiv City Council launched into an innovation journey born of necessity. Its response to the conflict has given the group an expertise like no different.
3. CIO interview: Michael Taylor, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One
Michael Taylor, IT director of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One group, has been concerned within the IT behind Formula One for greater than 20 years. During that point, he says the most important change is that instrumentation and information analytics has now expanded throughout each facet of the organisation.
For occasion, the automobile dynamics group at Mercedes F1 is creating what Taylor describes as “a kind of virtual modelling”. “We are trying to get as close to a digital twin of the car as possible, but it is very, very difficult to do because the car is constantly evolving,” he says.
4. CTO interview: Lee Cowie, Merlin Entertainments
Lee Cowie, CTO at Merlin Entertainments, chats about expertise leadership obligations in entrance of a large image of superhero Iron Man. It’s a vivid reminder of the type of firm he works for and a visible clue to his emotions concerning the function.
“I get a real buzz from working on something that is relatable,” he says. “That’s what gets me out of bed each morning and that’s why I took the role. It’s like the ultimate job for me. I am a big kid at heart. I just love what we do. No day ever really feels like working for me.”
Cowie is main a tech-enabled enterprise transformation at Merlin, the world’s second-largest operator of household leisure locations. It runs a variety of resorts, accommodations and points of interest, together with Legoland, Sea Life aquariums, Warwick Castle and Alton Towers.
5. CTO interview: Steve Otto, The R&A
Steve Otto, chief expertise officer at The R&A, is again on residence territory – and in additional methods than one. After having to create a data-led various to The Open as a result of pandemic in 2020 and having run an occasion with decreased capability in 2021, Otto and his colleagues had been again with a full-scale event for the one hundred and fiftieth Open at St Andrews in July.
Commonly thought of to be the house of golf, St Andrews can be Otto’s everlasting residence. The R&A, which is golf’s governing physique in addition to the organiser of The Open, relies on the picturesque Scottish city. In a behind-the-scenes tour of expertise techniques on the course, Otto says it’s nice to be residence.
6. CIO interview: Yiannis Levantis, Unipart IT
Turning an organization’s IT operate into an distinctive enterprise in its personal proper should be the dream of many a CIO. Yiannis Levantis, group CIO at UK logistics firm Unipart envisions doing exactly that, drawing on his expertise of a protracted profession in company IT, which incorporates intervals at Unilever and Rolls-Royce.
As the CIO of Unipart, whose origins are within the automotive business, Levantis has led the selection of the Rise with SAP cloud-based enterprise useful resource planning and associated applied sciences service because it seeks to boost the techniques integration aspect of its personal enterprise. Amazon Web Services is the cloud supplier it has chosen for the Rise service.
7. CTO interview: Milena Nikolic, Trainline
Filling the sneakers of somebody who has led the tech technique for six years is a tall order, however that is precisely what Milena Nikolic hopes to realize in her function as Trainline’s new chief expertise officer.
Nikolic’s earlier employer was Google. “So much of my experience was at Google,” she says. “Running tech and tech teams at scale is a big thing Google had to learn.”
Her key takeaway was being very data-driven and empowering tech groups. When requested concerning the transfer to the prepare app developer, Nikolic says: “What resonated with me about Trainline is enabling greener travel choices. It’s very meaningful for me. I could see quite a lot of commitment, making more people use rail and switch from cars. That’s what I want to be part of.”
8. CTO interview: James Donkin, Ocado Technology
Technology-driven Ocado is a pioneer within the on-line grocery market and a family title. The firm makes in depth use of web of issues, edge and cloud-based computing and robotics, and it just lately invested in autonomous kerbside supply.
Its fulfilment and logistics service, Ocado Smart Platform, is utilized by Morrisons within the UK and different grocers world wide. Ocado additionally has a strategic partnership with Marks & Spencer and is actively increasing globally.
James Donkin has labored at Ocado for 16 years. As the chief expertise officer of Ocado Technology, he oversees a group of 1,000 software program engineers and {hardware} builders.
(*10*)
9. CIO interview: James Fleming, Francis Crick Institute
The Francis Crick Institute has a whole bunch of world partnerships that require managed entry to delicate well being information.
Its CIO is James Fleming, who joined the analysis institute 4 years in the past. Fleming, who has a level in physics, comes from a telecoms background, having beforehand labored at BT on initiatives together with the 4G backhaul community.
Since he joined the Institute, Fleming says the IT division has been adapting quickly and is now 40% bigger. IT has duty over three tech platforms, the IT infrastructure, high-performance computing and three public clouds. Fleming says his function, and the function of IT, is to make the IT technique as agile as potential.
10. CTO interview: Shawn Edwards, Bloomberg
In the previous 19 years, Shawn Edwards, CTO at Bloomberg, has seen the business change radically. When requested concerning the greatest change that has impacted companies, Edwards says: “I think there have been a lot of trends. I like to joke and say the tech industry has more trends than the fashion industry.”
While there are extra fads, Edwards says some traits have endured. One of these is web-scale, high-performance, open supply software program. When he began working for Bloomberg, Edwards says the corporate didn’t have an open supply coverage. As a consequence, the developer group at Bloomberg needed to construct nearly the whole lot itself.
