Heather Jackson CIO50 2008

Heather Jackson joined Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) in Feb 2000, where she is responsible for a budget of £1bn and has leadership of an internal IT community of more than 5,800 IT professionals across multiple locations worldwide.

Since graduating in History from Oxford University, Jackson's early working career involved a short time as a trainee accountant before moving into the more forward facing IT sector working for five years for a variety of tech companies including Accenture.

Moving into the end user environment, Jackson's career spans some big names in retail and financial services. She worked in IT for Burton Group where she was involved in the end-to-end redevelopment of key business systems, for George at ASDA as IT director, for Boots the chemist within IT development, and for Capital One as UK IT director.

Since joining HBOS Jackson has had a variety of roles, including heading up IT for the bank's retail divisions, then heading up IT and HR for retail, and being director of HBOS group services. While in the bank's retail business Jackson was responsible for the Halifax and Bank of Scotland merger activity.

Jackson lives in North Yorkshire and has three sons. Away from the office she enjoys doing anything outdoors including tennis, mountain bike riding, off road biking, running and hiking.