Digital leader acclaimed
Sarah Wilkinson (above), chief digital, data and technology officer at the Home Office, has been acclaimed as one of the leading women in IT.
Sarah Wilkinson, chief digital, data and technology officer at the Home Office, has been acclaimed as one of the leading women in IT.
She was a Digital Leader of the Year finalist in the recent Women in IT Awards, organised by Information Age, which recognise the outstanding contribution made by women in the IT industry.
The eight finalists in the category were acknowledged as providing the best examples of innovation, leadership, digital best practice, return on investment and alignment with business goals. It was won by Beverley Bryant, director of digital transformation at NHS Digital.
Ms Wilkinson, who is also a non-executive director of the Police ICT Company, joined the Home Office in February 2015, having spent 23 years in financial services.
Describing the challenge at the Home Office as a mountain of opportunity, she has transformed its technology capability and outcomes since her arrival, to great acclaim both internally and externally.
Ms Wilkinson who last year was ranked 26 in CIO Magazines top 100 most transformative chief information officers in the UK has redesigned the IT department to be more closely aligned to Home Office business units, transformed the infrastructure and platforms, moved the department increasingly to agile development approaches and introduced best-practice DevOps (software DEVelopment and information technology OPerationS) capability.
Ms Wilkinson lent her expertise to the Police ICT Summit earlier this year. Welcoming the work being done to create national standards and platforms for all police systems, she told delegates that it was important to really understand the core competencies of suppliers, and their specific experience and expertise that can be injected into specific problems.
