Job Title : CIO

Organization : Ministry of Defence

John Taylor has been CIO at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) since October 2008, when the position evolved from his previous roles of director general information and senior risk officer for the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) programme.

This isn’t the first time Taylor has appeared on a silicon.com list recognising the best individuals in IT. He also made the Government Agenda Setters list in November last year.

Taylor is responsible for the Defence Information Strategy and his role includes being the policy lead on information security, which covers sensitive military and personal data held by the MoD.

In recent years, Taylor has overseen a tightening of data security at the MoD after several data losses.

Taylor first worked for the MoD as a student engineer before he went on to graduate from Glasgow University with a first-class degree in electronics engineering in 1977.

Before becoming CIO, Taylor was the team leader for the smart procurement initiative designed to reform the MoD’s approach to acquiring defence equipment.

Other high-profile roles include Minister for Defence Material at the British Embassy in Washington DC where he oversaw the MoD’s transatlantic acquisition business, and project director for developing the MoD Abbey Wood HQ in Bristol.