Computing is all about the IT leader - whether that's the CIO, CTO, IT director, chief architect or any one of dozens of other titles. Having spoken to hundreds of IT leaders over the last 12 months and beyond, we feel well qualified to produce the definitive rankings for the top 100 IT leaders in the UK.
To produce this list we took into account factors like size of organisation, size of department, annual budget, duration in role and level of transformation achieved. Then, in consultation with industry experts, we undertook the incredibly challenging task of producing the final list - a task which became ever trickier the closer to the top we got.
Do you feel that you should be on this list? Should you be placed higher? Then contact the editorial team, we'll arrange an interview and next year, it could be you sitting at the top.
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Paul Brockelhurst
Head of IT, Surrey County Council
Brockelhurst has been CIO at Surrey County Council for six and a half years. He has a history in local government IT, having previously worked for the London Borough of Hounslow, and West Sussex County Council. Today, he manages a budget of £24m, with over 150 staff.
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Alan Hill
Head of Operate and Defend, UK Ministry of Defence
Brigadier Hill's military career has seen him rise through the Signal Brigade up to managing Head Information Superiority. Covering most aspects of army IT at the CIO level, intelligence, security, data warehousing and applications were his speciality. He has recently taken the post of Head of Operate and Defend.
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David Cooper
CIO, British Gas
Joining British Gas from TalkTalk Residential in 2011, Cooper focused his energies on defining strategy and transformation of the Centrica group's IS capability, which was another of his core responsibilities in the role. He is bringing his past work at TalkTalk into a new focus on new technologies.
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David Munn
Head of IT, Greater London Authority
Munn has overall responsibility for IT Service at the GLA including: programme delivery, operations, support, voice and data networks, back-office services, systems integration and development.
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Paul Mease
Head of IT, Unite
As head of IT for an organisation which represents 1.4 million members, it's essential that Mease ensures everyone in the organisation is properly equipped with the right tools. That's been partially achieved by replacing legacy BlackBerry smartphones with iPhones. "The latest devices that have come from BlackBerry and the cost of them doesn't warrant us continuing with them," Mease told Computing.
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Simon Parker
CIO, Babcock
Support services company Babcock operates across the world, presenting a huge challenge to Parker, who has been CIO at the company for the past five years. As CIO, he has upgraded networking and storage, but resisted the temptation of outsourcing, with about 80 per cent of IT staff - around 650 people - directly employed.
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Moira Bragg
Head of ICT, Medway Council
Like many local authorities, Medway Council is not only feeling the squeeze of government cuts, but it's required to improve services at the same time. That's why Bragg looked towards an agile working strategy and a new virtualised IT infrastructure in order to improve efficiency across the council. It marked a new way of working for council employees, but Bragg told Computing they're "singing its praises."
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Sarah Flannigan
CIO, National Trust
Flannigan has been CIO at the National Trust for over five years. She is responsible for all Information Technology and Information Systems infrastructure at the National Trust and for leading a major pan-Trust transformation programme, which aims to grow customer engagement and reduce internal inefficiency.
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Adam Gerrard
CIO, Yodel
Handling IT strategy following the merger that created Yodel, Gerrard has got to grips with a smooth cost-saving process that has also allowed Yodel to start making a serious play in the analytics space. Don't try to contact him on Black Friday on any given year, because he has absolutely no time to reply.
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Mike Jones
CIO, Northern Devon NHS Trust
The Department of Health is driving the NHS towards being a completely paperless organisation. But while many hospitals are struggling with this concept, Jones and Northern Devon NHS Trust have openly embraced it. The transformation, which has seen staff equipped with Android tablets, has been so fast, "A lot of the staff couldn't do without [mobile devices] now," Jones told Computing.
