New Statesman Media Group‘s Virtual CIO Symposium on Wednesday 18 November will feature European CIO leaders managing thousands of technology staff, billions of pounds of IT and innovation investment, and delivering digital services and programmes to millions of citizens and customers.

Business, technology and digital executives are invited to register and hear from London’s chief digital officer Theo Blackwell, Philip Morris International CTO Michael Voegele, Equinor CIO Åshild Hanne Larsen, and Met Office CIO Charles Ewen.

[Register for Virtual CIO Symposium]

The leading CIOs will be sharing their experiences, insights, innovations, opportunities and challenges with New Statesman Media Group journalists. New Statesman Media Group is the publisher of Tech Monitor.

Virtual CIO Symposium speakers

Theo Blackwell is the first chief digital officer for London and will discuss digital innovation opportunities in the Mayor of London’s Office including the capital’s connectivity infrastructure, Smart City initiatives, the London Data Store and Emerging Tech Charter, investing in Londoners’ digital skills, and working with ecosystems of partners to deliver for citizens and businesses.

Philip Morris CTO Michael Voegele, who joined from his role as Adidas CIO at the start of 2019, will discuss digital transformation at one of the world’s biggest organisations, and how the technology function is helping PMI on its new mission of cannibalising its core business to “deliver a smoke-free future” by pivoting the 173-year-old company’s business away from combustible tobacco products.

“We have set ourselves to completely transform our business from a traditional manufacturing and distribution business that only had a single product, into what I would say is a science and technology company that has a pipeline of innovative electronic products and that moves into the space of omnichannel,” Voegele said about the company’s plans.

Equinor CIO Åshild Hanne Larsen was named CIO of the Year Europe at the end of 2019 by an independent jury. She will discuss the Norwegian energy giant’s digital transformation and data innovation journey, why CIOs need to work with HR leaders on future working initiatives, leadership lessons from responding to Covid-19, and why the coronavirus crisis has pushed tech and IT even further up the business agenda.

Charles Ewen is Director of Technology and CIO at the Met Office and will be in conversation with Tech Monitor reporter Claudia Glover. Ewen will discuss the Met Office’s use of physics to create precise simulations of the atmosphere, variations in the nature of heterogeneous supercomputing architecture and the process of getting digital IT right to safeguard the end-to-end value chain.

Virtual CIO Symposium agenda

1.30pm – 2pm
Welcome in Exhibition Hall and Networking Area
Video introduction by Edward Qualtrough, New Statesman Media Group Technology Editor

2pm
Philip Morris International CTO Michael Voegele interview
Disrupting a successful business model in ‘smoke-free’ transformation

2.40pm
Equinor CIO Åshild Hanne Larsen interview
Digitisation and data – and why HR leadership matters for CIOs

3.20pm – 3.30pm
Virtual CIO Symposium partner presentation

3.40pm – 4pm
Break

4pm
Chief digital officer for London Theo Blackwell interview
Digital innovation opportunities in the Mayor of London’s Office

4.40pm
Met Office CIO Charles Ewen interview
Utilising HPC and data in an increasingly autonomous world

Delegates at the Virtual CIO Symposium will be able to engage with presentations on the main stage, and with each other in Q&As with the speakers, sponsors, and their peers in virtual chats and private conversations.​

Previous speakers at 2020 New Statesman Media Group executive technology events include Sainsbury’s CIO Phil Jordan, British Red Cross CIO Rosie Slater Carr, Johnson Matthey CIO Paul Coby, British Army CIO Jon Cole, Northumbrian Water CIO Nigel Watson, Parliamentary Digital Service CIO Tracey Jessup, Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Chief Digital and Information Officer Karl Hoods, and SSE Energy Services CIO Philip Clayson.

[Register for New Statesman Media Group‘s Wednesday 18 November Virtual CIO Symposium]