Job Title : CIO

Organization : Hampshire County Council

As CIO for Hampshire County Council, Jos Creese is helping the council use technology to work smarter and offer improved services.

His position in this year’s CIO50 reflects the increasing importance of local government in delivering services to the public and also his own conviction that IT should be a source of innovation and an agent of change, and not just a back-office function.

Creese has contributed to major business and technology transformation projects at the council – including supporting staff who want to work flexibly – and the setting up of a countywide public services network that is saving the council more than £1m each year.

Other notable tech projects at Hampshire include offering the county’s schools services from a cloud computing platform and making it easier for residents to interact with the council by expanding self-service options online.

In addition, Hampshire provides IT services to several hundred public sector organisations.

Creese influences national and local government IT policy through his position as founder and chair of the Local CIO Council and member of the National Government CIO Council, and was until recently president of Socitm.

Creese has over 25 years of IT management experience, and has worked for central government, district and unitary councils.

A regular speaker at conferences, Creese is an advocate for changing approaches to IT leadership to reflect the changing role of IT demanded by private and public sectors alike.