Interview with Ian Penny, CIO of the year

Ian Penny, CIO of Hiscox and winner of CIO of the year at the UK IT Industry Awards 2018, discusses what the award means for him, and his priorities for 2019

Ian Penny, CIO of insurer Hiscox, won the prestigious CIO of the Year award at the recent UK IT Industry Awards.

Computing has previously announced the full rundown of all winners on the night, and published a gallery showing the glittering event in all its glory.

Ian told Computing what the win means for him:

"Winning CIO of the year is a very humbling experience," said Penny.

"The breadth and depth of talent amongst the finalists shows the strength of the UK IT industry and being recognised by my peers is an incredible outcome. We are navigating through a period of unprecedented digital change. Hiscox continues to grow; we are renovating our core infrastructure and exploiting technology to drive us forwards.

"As CIO the dual role of acting as an agent of change, bringing about tangible outcomes, and ensuring stability is the greatest challenge; winning this award is vindication of the course we are taking at Hiscox.

"I lead an extremely talented team and they know this wouldn't be possible without them; it's all about being ‘One Team' and holding ourselves to account.

"Winning this award is amazing recognition and reinforces that whilst leaders set the direction it is the team and taking personal accountability, from our apprentices and year in industry students to our most experienced colleagues, that will take us to where we need to be. We need to keep up the energy, hard work, and curiosity."

He also expressed his delight at the evening itself.

"The awards night was a great opportunity to catch-up with old friends, meet new ones, and encourage my team to make new connections.

"With everything going on in the world, sometimes it's easy to lose sight of the strength of the UK IT industry but you can witness that firsthand at the awards. The professionalism of the awards process is reflected in the awards night and is testament to the organisers."

Finally, he discussed his top priorities for 2019.

"My priorities are enshrined in the purpose I wrote earlier this year: One Team, keeping the business safe and powering future growth.

"It should come as no surprise that continuing to drive our talent agenda is first and foremost. Having a pipeline of talented colleagues underpins everything I do whether they be new to the industry, mid-career, or experienced technologists, our people are what differentiates us.

"Sustaining a learning environment where bold career moves are rewarded and there is safety in taking a risk is one of my primary roles - being a place for the ambitious and talented can't be a tag line, we need to live it every day.

"Cyber security must be top of mind for every CIO and CEO. The evolving threat landscape means that we need to evolve constantly whilst allowing the business the freedom to operate through new channels and partnerships. There is a strong element of education and increasing reliance on technical capabilities in automation and analytics.

"It's also imperitive to help my colleagues grow their businesses through differentiated customer experiences. This requires continued renovation of the core, an uptick in the use of analytical capabilities to provide tangible business intelligence, and new digital channels powered by API's for our partners.

"We also need to exploit robotics, automation, and machine learning to deliver a step change in productivity; I expect 2019 to be a year when the ‘bot assisted workplace' starts to enter the mainstream. We are on a multi-year journey to free up our people to work on high-value activity and have the machines do everything else; as CIO it's my role to ensure that we embrace the opportunity."