NHS Digital hires Home Office CTO Sarah Wilkinson as its new CEO

Wilkinson held senior IT positions at Deutsche Bank, UBS, HSBC and Credit Suisse before transferring to the public sector

NHS Digital has hired the Home Office's chief data and technology officer Sarah Wilkinson to become its new CEO.

The organisation's last CEO, Andy Williams, had been CEO since April 2014, when it was known as the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).

He had announced that he would be retiring, and would leave the organisation on 31 March this year. Rob Shaw has taken over on an interim basis and will continue in that role until Wilkinson joins the organisation later this year.

Wilkinson will take-up the role after more than two years at the Home Office, where she has been focused on transforming the department's IT capabilities.

She has a background in the financial services sector - holding senior IT positions at some of the world's biggest financial institutions including Deutsche Bank, UBS, HSBC and Credit Suisse.

NHS Digital chair Noel Gordon said Wilkinson would bring "vast experience of implementing complex technology projects, alongside a deep insight into bringing about positive change to a broad range of communities through digital delivery".

"I am delighted that Sarah is joining NHS Digital at such a pivotal time for health and care as we work hard to empower the system through digital transformation," he said.

Meanwhile, Wilkinson said of her appointment: "I am thrilled to be joining an organisation that has such a major role to play in supporting health and care organisations to provide preeminent services."

"Digital and technical capabilities and the fast-evolving market in platforms, software, devices and analytics, are transforming the ability of the medical profession to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases. To be asked to work at the forefront of delivering these capabilities is hugely exciting.

"A major draw of the role is the opportunity to work with and alongside an incredibly talented team of medical practitioners, technologists and other specialists. It is a huge privilege to be asked to be part of this community."

She leaves the Home Office as it embarks on a plan to bring together its enterprise resource planning (ERP), business intelligence, CRM,HCM and payroll under one new system that it is calling Metis.

In her new role, Wilkinson will have the task of delivering a paperless NHS by 2020, as well as a number of other digital initiatives.

It remains to be seen whether a new version of the controversial data-sharing programme, Care.data, which was launched by NHS Digital's predecessor HSCIC, will relaunch in a different guise, no doubt under a different name.

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