Job Title : CIO

Organization : Department for Communities and Local Government

Mark O’Neill is CIO for the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG). He’s also the founder of the newly formed Skunkworks R&D team, which is exploring how government IT can become more agile and community-focused, and looking at evolving IT procurement processes and creating low-cost public sector apps.

O’Neill’s government IT experience spans several years, with previous roles including CIO of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport – a job he was doing at the same time as his current role up until recently – and technical roles at the Home Office and HM Treasury. He has also worked as the EU and international representative for the UK government on a range of IT topics.

O’Neill has lectured on IT and business at Oxford University and Kingston University, and has written widely on IT, innovation and business change. He holds a BSc in astrophysics from the University of London.

Outside the world of public sector IT, O’Neill enjoys writing about art and music – covering the likes of Russian avant-garde artist Lyubov Popova to Hackney jungle group The Ragga Twins.