Laura Duffey

Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK in 2026.

Laura Duffey is CIO for Shell's Low Carbon Solutions business, leading the digital, data and technology transformation that supports a more sustainable and resilient energy future. With 25 years' experience in global energy, she connects business ambition with technology strategy, using innovation, AI and data-led performance to accelerate low-carbon solutions and deliver meaningful business outcomes.

Laura is known for turning complexity into momentum, building high-performing teams and leading with authenticity, inclusion and commercial edge. She is passionate about creating cultures where people feel empowered to contribute, grow and thrive - and where technology becomes a catalyst for transformation, trust and lasting impact.

What's the most exciting part of your current role?

Leading in the space where technology, business ambition and organisational courage meet.

In the energy sector, the work is inherently consequential. We are navigating capital discipline, operational resilience, decarbonisation, cyber risk, changing customer expectations and the acceleration of AI - all at once. What excites me is shaping the conditions in which the organisation can respond with more pace, confidence and intelligence.

That means going beyond digital delivery into the architecture of better decisions: better data, clearer signals, sharper choices, faster execution and stronger accountability for value.

I am particularly energised by AI-enabled transformation because it asks deeper questions of leadership. What work should remain human? Where are we tolerating friction because it is familiar? How do we build teams that combine technical fluency with judgement, curiosity and commercial edge?

The privilege of my role is working at both altitudes: the strategic horizon and the human reality of change. I can help shape where the business is going, while building the teams, confidence and capability to get there.

For me, that is the most exciting work in technology leadership: turning complexity into momentum, and possibility into performance.

What do you do in week one of a new project to avoid pain in month six?

In week one, I am looking for the truths that will become expensive by month six.

I start with the business ambition. What are we really trying to change, where does it hit the balance sheet, and who is accountable for the benefits showing up in performance? Many projects begin with agreement in principle. Fewer begin with aligned ownership.

I then get close to the pain. Where is work slow, duplicated, manual or unclear? Where are customers, users or teams quietly absorbing the cost of poor process, fragmented data or legacy decisions? The opportunity usually sits close to the frustration.

The next job is making hidden interfaces visible. Dependencies across data, architecture, cyber, vendors, process, controls, change, operating model and funding rarely fail loudly at the start. They become the drag later.

The board-level question is whether the organisation has the capacity, sponsorship and decision quality to absorb the change alongside everything else it is already trying to deliver.

So, week one is about creating shared truth early: ambition, pain, value, ownership, interdependencies, competing priorities and change effort. That is what protects momentum later.

What’s the part of your estate you most want to simplify in 2026?

Where complexity creates risk without creating value.

That starts with clearer risk appetite. In cyber, resilience and operational technology, simplification cannot mean naivety. The major breaches we continue to see in the news are a constant reminder that exposure is no longer theoretical. Everyone says it is a case of when, not if - but any responsible technology leader also carries the very human thought: not on my watch.

I want sharper clarity between frontline exposure and behind-the-scenes resilience. Where do we need stronger controls, better segmentation, cleaner ownership, fewer exceptions and faster recovery? Where are we carrying complexity because it is familiar, rather than justified?

The same applies to the application portfolio. We have talked about rationalisation for decades, but the job is never finished. Portfolios accrete through history, local optimisation, acquisitions, urgent delivery and tolerated duplication.

The opportunity now is bigger than cost reduction. Simplification is a route to commercial edge. If we want speed, integration, trusted data and AI-enabled performance, we cannot keep managing capability in silos.

Excluding smartphones, what piece of technology could you not live without and why?

I would probably have to admit to two: noise-cancelling headphones and a high-performing coffee machine.

The headphones are mainly for the commute. They create a small window of calm before the day starts properly - before the calls, decisions, escalations, trade-offs and inevitable context switching across eight global businesses in my portfolio. Sometimes I listen to something useful. Sometimes I just enjoy the rare luxury of nobody asking me a question.

The coffee machine is less negotiable. Everyone in my team knows I love good coffee, and I am not sure I would be entirely credible pretending otherwise. It is part ritual, part fuel, part tiny act of optimism before opening the laptop.

There is a serious point underneath the caffeine. Technology leadership is intense, and the quality of your judgement depends partly on the state you arrive in. For me, those two pieces of technology help me start the day clearer, calmer and more energised.

Not revolutionary, but very necessary!

What excites you most about the future of IT?

Moving from enabling the enterprise to re-architecting how the enterprise thinks, decides and performs. AI is the obvious headline, and the pace of capability is extraordinary. But the deeper shift is organisational. This era will test whether companies can move beyond experimentation into sustained change: redesigning work, reshaping roles, rebuilding processes and creating the data foundations that allow intelligence to scale.

For years, many organisations have documented activity: process maps, controls, hand-offs, reporting lines. The future state is more powerful. It is about designing decision systems - how signals are trusted, how choices are made, how accountability is assigned, and how execution is triggered.

That changes the long-term value of data. Data becomes the material from which judgement, prediction, automation and trust are built. It also changes cyber and risk, because more intelligent organisations will be more connected, more dependent and more exposed.

That is the part I find most exciting: helping shape this inflection point with intent, so technology, data, people and governance translate into lasting performance advantage.

What talent are you quietly proud of that would never show up on LinkedIn?

Being prepared to be absolutely terrible at something in front of my six-year-old daughter.

I had my only daughter later in life, and there have been hard trade-offs along the way. I care a lot about being a role model for her - showing her that women can lead, build, earn, influence and take up space.

But some of the best lessons at home are much less polished. We both love music, so we have started learning instruments together. We have also formed a band, in the loosest possible sense of the word. I would describe our current sound as enthusiastic. Possibly brave. Not yet marketable. But we try. We laugh. We make a fairly dreadful noise. We keep going.

I love that she sees me learning, not only leading. I want her to know that confidence is not the same as competence, and that being bad at something is often the entry price for getting better.

Who knows, it may become a LinkedIn post one day. On current LinkedIn standards, two bad chords and a growth mindset practically qualifies as thought leadership ;)

What’s your most-used keyboard shortcut or command that you wish everyone knew?

My honest answer is that keyboard shortcuts are not my strong suit. I probably need to be learning, not leading, on this one. But the one I do wish everyone knew is Ctrl+Shift+V - paste without formatting.

It is deeply unglamorous, but very satisfying. No rogue fonts. No strange spacing. No random bullet points arriving from another universe.

It also feels like a useful leadership metaphor - and quite possibly a future LinkedIn post ;) So much organisational mess comes from carrying forward old formatting: inherited assumptions, outdated processes, duplicated governance, legacy reports, and ways of working that nobody loves but everybody keeps copying.

Paste without formatting is a tiny act of discipline. Keep the substance. Lose the clutter. That is often the work of technology leadership too. Not making everything shiny and new, but asking what still serves the outcome, what creates value, and what we are preserving simply because it came with the template.