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Jagpal Jheeta

Jagpal Jheeta

Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK in 2024.

A tech whiz with more than 20 years of experience, Jagpal has led divisions at major FTSE 100 companies, braved the innovative fires of a Silicon Valley start-up, and headed up Regulatory Systems at the FCA until recently, when he moved on to the Chief Product Officer role internally.

Since joining the FCA Jagpal has led teams to deliver significant change that has put the regulator on the fast track to the cloud - even spearheading the successful migration to Salesforce. He has led digital journeys for large organisations across various consumer-facing industries, and hopes to enable the FCA to a tech-powered future.

How did you get into IT?

After acquiring a 2.1 Computer Science degree from Brunel University I started my IT career as a Systems Developer working in retail, initially with M&S on their Graduate training programme, then moving to Debenhams, leading on their first transactional website. Over a period of seven years I covered a variety of roles across business analysis, project and programme management.

Next, I worked at a start-up (private equity-led business) for six years, growing the technology team from 0 to 100, before returning to large corporations. I returned to M&S as part of global technology SLT for big data, corporate systems/ERP/SAP and international, before moving on to Royal Mail as a Divisional CIO leading technology for International and UK parcels growth business units.

I joined the FCA approximately 4.5 years ago as the head of department for our Tech Regulatory Systems, and have recently taken up a new challenge as interim Chief Product Officer role, leading the FCA's Digital Hub and Digital Technology journey.

Over the past 27 years, I have learnt a lot technically, about my leadership style and how to help organisations solve their business challenges through digital and technology.

What do you consider your greatest IT achievement of the last 12 months?

There are a few! A few that come to mind are:

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

I am very conscious that Technology is an underrepresented specialism in the industry as a STEM subject and truly believe that people from all walks of life 'make the party'. We also have divisional Diversity targets at the FCA, across all job levels, which can be found on our website.

In order to remove bias from the recruitment process I work with our recruitment team to:

I am also co-sponsor of a faith network across the FCA, and a sponsor and mentor for colleagues, to try and be a visible role model.

Which technology are you currently most excited by, and why?

I am excited at what AI can bring on many levels! Firstly, to the financial markets and consumers - the FCA has already had a few success stories in this space such as sanctions screening (at pace), web scraping techniques to spot and stop harm.

Secondly, how we accelerate and deliver change. There's a lot of hype, but importantly this puts focus on the foundations (data, resilience), and opens opportunities to work differently across business processes. Lots of new challenges to consider too, from IP ownership to unconscious bias.

Advances in DevSecOps, ensuring we can deliver change at a high cadence, whilst ensuring we remain safe and protect the FCA.

Outside of the FCA - oh my the scope is incredible! I am super excited for science - the advancement of medical research and procedures. I also hear we will have flying taxis in the UK and Dubai soon, feels surreal to be honest! As with many technologies, risk is involved, so we need ethical debate/guard rails/ even regulation (industry-dependent) so that on balance AI can be a force for good.

I am glad the UK government is an advocate for the UK to be a leading hub!

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

As a Director, I work across many technology teams (who are very passionate about their work) and being a bridge between the wider FCA teams brings an interesting awareness on how other teams, for example our economists, make a significant impact to the purpose of the FCA, reducing consumer harm.

Within Technology, on a day-to-day basis, I: interact with colleagues across all levels in the organisation on a day-to-day basis, from ExCo to Developers and colleagues across multiple locations; work alongside the FCA's strategic partners and matrix manage those teams; can get involved in initiatives large and small - for example, I chose to sponsor a key 2023 employee survey theme.

Perhaps the most important of all - a lot of the technology challenges we face at the FCA are similar to other organisations, but, the impact if we fail is significant and goes against the FCA's DNA. The focus on "getting technology right and enabling that technology to accelerate for better outcomes " is higher than any organisation I've worked for previously. Therefore, bringing my experience gained across the private sector has been hugely welcomed at the FCA.

What's your secret talent?

So here goes the embarrassment- I can make the veins in my hand move, which my kids find fascinating and disgusting!

Jokes aside, I am an avid runner and once participated in a "run from work to home" with colleagues. The team spirit, pain and fun really made the run worth it for me. Did I mention it was on 21st June, the longest daylight and possibly hottest day of year? I ran from Liverpool Street to home, equivalent to 14 miles, in 2 hours 15 mins (just over a half marathon).

At work I have benefited from being able to speak Punjabi, as some of our key supplier partnerships have lots of native Indian colleagues and trying trips to India this has helped me to connect and lead diverse teams!

What makes you laugh?

I enjoy a good dad joke - I'm a sucker, especially if IT related, but I am a dad, so I guess this doesn't count?! Additionally, I make sense of the crazy world we live in these days through the use of humour and quite possibly spend far too much time at work, so I escape it by not really escaping at all; by watching The Office many times, on repeat. I am convinced my kids and I are the reason the ratings are so high on Netflix. I guess there is an element of dark humour here, as we can all universally relate to the challenges/craziness at work we encounter far too often!

I also appreciate a good satirist as that helps make sense of the crazy world we live in, so I will attend the odd live comedy show. I am currently eyeing up a comedy gig at the Royal London Hotel in Kensington, and some of the proceeds will go to a much-needed humanitarian aid . Be rude not to, right?