Stephen Rooke

Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK in 2023.

Stephen specialises in generating business value through IT transformation and digital enablement, backed with data-driven methods and AI. He is interested in both technologies, seeing great potential in the intersection of artificial intelligence and data insights, and has held senior IT roles in both public and private sectors.

How did you get into IT?

Copying code from a book on my ZX Spectrum +3

How do you ensure diversity is taken into account in your IT recruitment?

Our People team are great on this, for example reviewing and tweaking job descriptions. We source candidates from many places. All hiring managers have unconscious bias training available to them, and remote interviewing helps too.

Which technology are you currently most excited by?

The easy answer is AI. We are trialling Copilot, which is bonkersly good, but for me it's good old data insight done right. With storage costs continuing to fall we can capture and keep more and more data points then ever before; with inquisitive people this can lead to great opportunities.

What would an outsider find the most surprising part of your job?

For me it's when they find out that tech is secondary to people. My role is all about people, and enabling them to be brilliant.

What's your secret talent?

The ability to quickly spot the root cause of issues and come up with pragmatic solutions to improve over differing horizons.

What makes you laugh?

Beers with friends and a surprising amount of kids TV!