Nic Granger

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

Having worked internationally and in the UK in commercial and public sector, as Chief Information and Financial Officer, Nic leads an award-winning team delivering digital, data, technology and financial solutions for the North Sea Transition Authority.

She chairs the Offshore Energy Digital Strategy Group, is on the boards of CAST, the Centre for the Acceleration of Social Technology; BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT; and the Bat Conservation Trust, and is an independent member of a technology and data assurance panel of a housing association.

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

Convincing people that digital, data and technology can change their working lives. Whilst people might be really aware of technologies such as gen AI in their own lives, switching this to implementing technologies at work can sometimes be more daunting. Convincing people to commit the time to working with digital and data teams is really rewarding when it comes off!

Also, sitting as a technology focused non-executive director on a number of boards is really interesting, seeing how a range of organisations are facing the same challenges in different sectors, and offering advice is a great part of my portfolio role.

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

During the year the data in the National Data Repository - an innovative cloud-based platform that my team launched to preserve, regulate and provide greater access to the UK's collection of energy-related and geological information - increased from 500TB to over a petabyte.

The data in this platform led in year to the success of the UK's first carbon storage round. The link between the platform and the bids was clear, with a 20-fold increase in data downloads on the launch day of the round. The 21 licences awarded could store 10% of the UK's annual greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy Pathfinder was developed and launched rapidly using leading-edge business intelligence tools and functionality, delivering an easy-to-use interface facilitating new collaborations with energy industry partners.

This platform has enabled the award of 122 contracts and 29 collaborations between industry partners. The portal has created significant quarterly growth in capex opportunities, e.g. facilitating the industry to achieve value for money on the £40 billion of investment in decommissioning.

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

Having the right digital and data skills across organisations. Without the right skills in place to use technology the tech itself is irrelevant. To mitigate this I've rolled out the following:

• Innovation Time - everyone has dedicated time each month to pursue learning opportunities or develop new approaches. It has resulted in the creation of new products such as geospatial data maps relating to geothermal energy used at Leadership Team level, enabled the completion of qualifications for individuals and chartered membership in BCS and learning Python.
• Launching a Digital Academy that offers a range of training opportunities and resources and running regular digital awareness sessions with product owners from across the organisation joining digital and data colleagues to present to the whole organisation.
• Learning and development is encouraged across the team funding courses at leading business schools, technical certifications and leadership programmes.
• Our Digital Ambassadors (from across the organisation) help resolve issues our colleagues and stakeholders experience with our data and digital solutions.

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

I'd like to be more interesting than this, but it's going to have to be my phone. The ability to have knowledge at your fingertips has not yet got old!

What excites you most about the future of IT?

The possibilities for working in different ways and being able to achieve so much more through the use of tech. There are so many opportunities that IT opens up for us all to consider.

Technology can make people's lives better – whether people are directly using the technology or it's changing the world around us.

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

As part of a role working overseas I was asked to advise on the implementation of an EPOS system in South Georgia in the South Atlantic, which involved a five-day sea journey there on a fishing protection vessel and avoiding charging fur seals whilst walking between the different sites. Implementing technology in such a far-flung part of the world can be interesting!

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

I'd properly learn some coding – my coding skills peaked at age seven with a ZX spectrum so would love to be able to advance a bit more from that stage!