John Suffolk CIO50 2008

Although not a CIO in the traditional sense - each government department has its own CIO - John Suffolk is the public face of UK government IT and leads the work of the CIO Council to deliver the IT strategy behind the 'Transformational Government' agenda.

Key to this is sharing best practice to improve the success rate of big government IT projects and to drive better value deals for the public sector on hardware, software and services.

The ongoing efficiency drive means there is also a big emphasis on shared services across government departments and, under Suffolk's guidance, the Cabinet Office has recently embraced shared back-office services.

Suffolk's remit also includes leading the IT Professionalism programme to create a genuine and attractive IT profession and career ladder in the public sector.

Suffolk 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 route to the top is via 25 years in both public and private sectors, including roles as a business troubleshooter and MD of Britannia.

At the weekends Suffolk escapes back to the Peak District where he runs a farm protecting rare breeds of sheep and pigs. In true Animal Farm style some of the pigs are named after chief executives and royalty.