Securing Your Next C-Suite Role, from CIO to CEO

Securing Your Next C-Suite Role

From shedding the 'cost centre' image of IT to developing their commercial acumen, today's technology executives are setting their sights on future COO and CEO positions.

The coalescence of Moore’s law, cloud computing, multi-disciplinary teams and an increasing number of CIOs sitting on boards have moved technology leaders from back-office order takers to transformational change agents. But could today's technology leaders go one step further - and become the CEO?

Join this conversation from The Studio on personal brands, communication skills, redefining the value of IT and navigating the journey from back-office order taker to transformative change agent.

Securing your next C-suite role: Meet the panellists

Hosted by HotTopics Editorial and Strategy Director Doug Drinkwater, the speakers on this panel include:

• Rich Corbridge, CDIO at the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
• Abhy Thomas Joseph, Global COO and President APAC, Pentland Brands
• Heather Barnes, Partner, Technology and Digital, Leathwaite
• Rachel Murphy, Former CIO and Founder of The Grafter

Watch the roundtable highlights for Securing Your Next C-Suite Role, from CIO to CEO

Dreaming big: Could the CIO become the CEO?

For many leaders, the role of technology has changed over the last decade, to the point where today's CIOs are setting their sights on future CEO roles.

“I was a CIO ten years ago, but at that point, it was always cost centre rather than profit centre,” said Rachel Murphy, CEO of The Grafter, during a panel on CIO to CEO at The Studio. 

“CIOs were mandated to be on the board of large trusts,” added DWP CDIO Rich Corbridge, referring to his time working in healthcare. 

“CIOs across the NHS used to joke the main reason they were on the board was to look after the three P's at the board meeting; PowerPoint, projector and power into the chief executive's laptop.”

Yet the evolution of technology, now the epicentre of every business strategy, means that technology leaders can start to dream of bigger titles, including the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

However, along the way, they will face numerous obstacles, from ‘letting go’ of expertise they may have built-up over twenty or more years, to needing to rebrand themselves, improve their communication and commercial acumen, and truly immerse themselves in business initiatives.

In this hotly-anticipated panel discussion, recorded live at The Studio at Abbey Road Studios in October 2023, a diverse panel of CIOs, COOs, entrepreneurs and recruitment specialists discuss how technology leaders have become change leaders, what they need to leave behind as they progress into more senior business positions and how they need to develop their brand and skill sets.