Christine Connelly CIO50 2009

As chief information officer for the Department of Health, Christine Connelly is in charge of the department's ambitious £12.7bn programme to revamp NHS IT, the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) - one of the biggest IT projects around.

On joining the DoH in September 2008, Scottish-born Connelly became the first CIO for health in the UK. She has responsibility for the Department of Health's overall strategy for developing and delivering healthcare IT and is responsible for co-ordinating the six directors in the new health informatics directorate.

Connelly recently pledged to end delays to the introduction of electronic medical records across England, saying that if there is not significant progress in delivery by November 2009, the DoH will move to a new plan for delivering healthcare IT.

Before joining the DoH Connelly, a computer science graduate from Aberdeen University, spent three years as CIO at Cadbury Schweppes.

Prior to joining Cadbury Schweppes, Connelly worked in various global roles at BP, including senior IT positions in oil exploration and refining. Other positions held include leadership roles in business simplification, innovation, internal audit and general management. Her last position in the company was as chief of staff for the gas, power and renewables business.