Jake Fraser

Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK in 2025.

Jake is a proud and pragmatic nerd, experienced in delivering a vast range of technical and operational support functions, accompanying strategic direction, and good management practice as a Chartered Manager and Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute. He is guided by his personal core values of accuracy, integrity, knowledge and service, which are critical in shaping and monitoring his intentions, actions, and development as an authentic, trustworthy and highly capable leader.

Jake has an MBA from Cranfield School of Management, and has been a Professional Member of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, for over a decade.

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

I get to influence and enable a global non-profit organisation to use digital capabilities and data better, and create a meaningful impact at scale by approaching technology adoption in the right way. It's incredibly compelling to contextualise my leadership with the positive impact that even minor improvements can have for our global base of members. I'm also developing a number of future IT professionals within my team and getting to see these individuals grow in skills, confidence, and experience is a real privilege.

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

As a leader, I am only successful if my team are successful, and my team have delivered some brilliant operational efficiency improvements over the last year. I have been encouraging everyone to really challenge themselves on embedding this mindset of continuous improvement into everything they do and at every level. These efficiencies are delivering financial and resource savings, much improved user experience for IT and wider staff (with consequential well-being improvements), and better collaboration with our volunteers.

By being more efficient, we're also unlocking capacity to explore new technologies, step changes in technology models, and protecting time for personal development.

What's the biggest challenge facing IT leaders today, and how are you tackling it?

IT is intrinsically, and in many organisations explicitly, responsible for enabling good quality data and information; in a world where AI is generating huge volumes of new content every minute, and the legislative landscape for data privacy around the world is ever-growing, the challenge for IT leaders is to be guardians of user trust in the technology that enables access to data and information. We have to recognise the extent to which the wider world relies on IT leadership to use technology well, and step up to that challenge.

What piece of technology could you not live without, and why?

It's hard to pick just one piece of technology these days as we all interact with so many types of tech everyday, but I'd probably pick my smartphone given it enables me to be effective and collaborative from just about anywhere.

What excites you most about the future of IT?

I think the future requires being the type of modern IT leader the world needs, with the highest ethical standards, recognising the complex environment in which we and the technology we're responsible for operates, and the challenges we have to tackle over the years to come such as rising energy demands of tech, responsible use of tech like AI and social media, information security, and many more. Responding to these challenges puts IT centre-stage, and able to influence the future of society for the better, is incredibly exciting to me.

What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?

Within my IT career, I recall a former boss remarking that often IT is considered to be "anything with a plug on it" and that's potentially now "anything with a screen on it" too! The range of questions that end up at the (virtual) door of IT is remarkable - but often it's because those working in IT are inherently excellent problem solvers. I've been asked to help on everything from a dishwasher to a burglar alarm. I don't think it's necessarily strange, but it keeps things varied for sure.

If you could instantly master one new skill, what would it be?

Technology removes barriers to communicate and collaborate, so being able to converse fluently in any major language would be an incredible skill to master instantly as needed. Although there are many ways technology can break down some language barriers, but nothing beats being able to build connections with other humans around the world and learning from others.