Job Title : Head of IT strategic development and performance

Organization : BG Group

Christine Ashton is head of IT strategic development and performance for BG Group, a natural gas company headquartered in London.

This is the first year on the CIO50 for Ashton, who joined FTSE 100-listed BG Group two years ago. The company, which covers all aspects of the natural gas chain from exploration to distribution, has operations in more than 25 countries in five continents.

Before joining BG Group, Ashton headed up teams at Transport for London and BP. At TfL, she led an overhaul of the organisation’s delivery of IT-enabled services, contributing to the security of the ‘Boris bike’ cycle-hire scheme, among other projects.

Ashton joined BP in 2001 as IT director within its energy business, eventually becoming chief information manager in its largest international division. She oversaw some of the world’s biggest business process, logistics and technology infrastructures at the energy giant before leaving in 2008. Along the way, her teams helped BP carry out the first ever carbon trade and adopt secure web-based critical applications.

She has also worked at director-level for Lattice, the Caudwell Group and Octel, as well as spending five years as a non-executive director of the Passport and Criminal Records Agency.

Outside the office, Ashton has served two terms on the BCS’s strategic panel. She has a special interest in workforce diversity and has been a finalist in the Women in Technology awards.