John Suffolk - Agenda Setters 2009
Name: John Suffolk
Title: Government CIO
Position: 16 Last year: 6
Why? For reducing the complexity of government IT
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As the man with the burden of overseeing the annual public sector IT spend of £16bn, the importance of government CIO John Suffolk cannot be overstated.
Suffolk and the CIO Council are working to strip the complexity and cost out of government IT through the use of shared services and common data formats in government.
Panellists said Suffolk is a pair of safe hands for the nation's IT, praising him for "driving radical plans that will transform the way public sector delivers IT".
A well-known face on the public speaking circuit, Suffolk's other role is to be the "face of government IT".
Suffolk became even more accessible to the public this year when he started his own blog, in which he lays out the IT complexity of Whitehall, 750 non-departmental bodies and 423 local authorities in the UK.
He has been government CIO since June 2006 and prior to this he was director general of the government's £2bn Criminal Justice IT programme.
His career spans 25 years in the public and private sectors, including roles as a business troubleshooter and MD of Britannia.
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