Exclusive: Highways Agency CIO steps down

IT management is restructured as a result of Denise Plumpton's departure

Denise Plumpton has joined the Highways Agency in 2005

The chief information officer (CIO) at the Highways Agency, Denise Plumpton, left the post last week, prompting a series of changes in the way IT will be organised at the transport authority.

Plumpton was hired for the top IT job at the Highways Agency, an executive agency of the Department for Transport, in 2005. Since then, she set out an IT strategy for the department and has led the transformation of its management information systems.

During her tenure, Plumpton, also a judge at the British Computer Society and Computing's UK IT Industry Awards since 2006, increased the use of outsourcing to reduce costs. For example she orchestrated the £75m IT infrastructure and applications deal signed with Atos Origin in 2008.

She also improved performance of an existing private finance initiative (PFI) contract at the National Traffic Control Centre, the Agency's source of real-time traffic information, and specified requirements for a replacement.

According to the Highways Agency, the IT transformation role "has now been completed".

Following the CIO's departure, the IT department at the Highways Agency will be split into traffic management and business services, an agency spokesman told Computing. The customer-facing aspects of technology will be handled by the traffic management team.

"We have defined our challenges and we are shaping our top team to meet these," the spokesman added.

The restructuring is forecast for completion at the end of January.

Plumpton now holds non-executive director positions at Centro, the organisation responsible for bus, rail and tram transport in the West Midlands as well as an NHS care trust.