Job Title : CIO

Organization : Bank of England

When Simon Moorhead became CIO for the Bank of England in November 2008, he became the first ever CIO for the 315-year-old institution. This is Moorhead’s second appearance on the CIO50 list, his first being last year.

Moorhead’s main goal has been to shift the focus of the IT team to provide business value for the Bank of England’s analysts and policy makers, to help them get the most accurate insights from the information it holds.

The data and information is seen to be as important as the technology itself and Moorhead works with the rest of the bank’s senior management team to work out where technology and information can be used to meet business goals.

The other major area of Moorhead’s job is to oversee the trading and payments systems that help run the UK’s financial infrastructure as well as the systems that inform monetary policy decisions for the UK.

Managing these systems also requires Moorhead to co-ordinate with international interests and other central banks – information security is therefore an ever-present area of focus.

Moorhead joined the Bank of England from Reuters’ global sales and services division where he held a similar role.

Prior to Reuters, he was a strategy and change consultant at international accountancy firm Ernst & Young as well as Capgemini. His first role was also in financial services, when he worked at Midland Bank.