TfL appoints Steve Townsend as new CIO in boardroom shakeup

One in four senior director-level roles to be axed as part of Project Horizon

Transport for London (TfL) has appointed Steve Townsend, previously director of information management for the company, to the role of chief information officer (CIO).

The move is part of an ongoing efficiency programme at TFL which has seen the roles of CIO and director of information management merged into one.

TfL is to see a 25 per cent reduction in all director-level roles as a result of this and similar job mergers.

Townsend will replace Ian Campbell who had been working as CIO for just over a year. Before this Campbell had worked as CIO for Royal Mail.

Campbell chose not to apply for the joint role, according to the TFL press office.

The change was announced internally earlier today along with 14 other senior management moves.

The press office confirmed that all staff would be in their new roles by January 2012.

The internal memo, seen by Computing, highlights a number of senior role appointments as part of the organisation's ongoing cost-saving agenda, dubbed Project Horizon.