Digital Government
Conference 2024

The CDIO post was created in 2019 to bring together strategy, policy, funding, delivery structures, governance, data leadership and digital innovation in an attempt to accelerate positive impact on people's lives in the region. The goal is to help deliver a Health and Care system that is economically sustainable with better care outcomes and safety and improved experiences for citizens and staff. The CDIO post is an Undersecretary / Director General in the Civil Service, and Dan sits on the board of the Department, as well as holding leadership roles in HSC delivery organisations (HSC = Northern Ireland's NHS - noting that Northern Ireland is unique in the UK context in having a fully integrated Health and Social Care system).

During COVID Dan's focus, like many others in the NHS, shifted to delivery - working across teams in public and private sectors to meet the needs of staff and citizens as Northern Ireland reacted to the rapid changes in public health policy. The work resulted in a dozen brand new public facing Digital services. These are cloud hosted, agile delivered, smartphone apps and open, transparent public data analytics capabilities. These technologies and techniques were virtually unheard of in the Health and Care sector in the region. Post pandemic Dan's role has turned core accountabilities of developing a Vision and Strategy for the Digital transformation of Health and Care in the region, establishing the long term investment roadmap and funding commitment, building the right delivery structures to make the journey successful, changing the culture and capabilities around data and information in the sector and building a new innovation architecture to enable academic and private sector Digital innovators to be able to contribute to addressing the challenges in Health and Care in the province. The current public services economic situation provides a challenging backdrop to maintain momentum on transformational digital investments.

Dan came to the Department of Health with over 20 years’ experience of technology led transformation in central government and healthcare organisations around the world, having worked for Accenture since graduating from Newcastle University in 1998.

Deborah Colville is the Director of the UK Digital Twin Centre, led by Digital Catapult. The Centre will accelerate the adoption of digital twins to drive global competitive advantage for UK businesses. In her previous role with Belfast City Council, she established the City Innovation Office driving service transformation programmes delivering a £12 million efficiency programme. As founder of the Smart Belfast Programme Deborah delivered cross sectoral innovation programmes securing £10 million funding to support digital innovation. Deborah has an MSc. in Information Systems Management and was appointed Honorary Professor of Practice in the QUB School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Queen's University Belfast.

Paul Duffy is currently the Deputy Secretary in the Department of Finance responsible for the delivery of Digital, Security and Finance Shared Services across the Northern Ireland Civil Service. He is the Senior Responsible Owner for the Integr8 Programme, which will transform how Finance, HR and Payroll services are delivered across Central Government, enabled through the introduction of a new integrated, cloud-based technology solution. Paul is a Fellow Chartered and Certified Accountant and is a graduate of the Major Projects Leadership Academy and the Orchestrating Major Projects programme at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University.

Frances Meehan is the Programme Director of Education Information Solutions (EdIS) and Assistant Director Education for the Education Authority. The EdIS Programme will result in the transformation of Educational Services for all Schools, Parents, Pupils, Teachers and School Leaders in Northern Ireland and deliver significant operational efficiencies as well as redefining the learning experiences of Children and Young People through the development of a Digital Learning Environment (DLE). Frances brings to her position 30 years’ experience and a well-established background in Procurement and Programme Management, and she has led significant Transformation and Change Management Projects in the Public Sector. Prior to working in the EA, she was Assistant Director Programme Management and Procurement in Northern Ireland Housing Executive. Frances held various Procurement and Programme and Project Management roles across NI Health and Education Sectors. Frances holds an MPA in Public Administration, Post Graduate Certificate in Management (Education), Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Level 7 and is a qualified Prince II Practitioner.

Moira Mackenzie is Deputy Chief Executive at Scotland’s Innovation Centre for Digital Health and Care (DHI). DHI is hosted by the University of Strathclyde in an exciting collaboration with Glasgow School of Art. Its 10 year strategy sets out a mission to “transform great ideas into real solutions”. DHI inspires, enables and combines world-leading expertise with service, business and technical innovation to create person-centred digital innovations which positively impact society. Moira’s extensive cross-sectoral expertise includes previous senior roles within the Scottish Government, NHS and Local Government.

Subhu Swain is Head of Business & Solutions Advisory at BT. In a world constantly reshaped by technology, Subhu’s vision goes beyond traditional tech: it’s about harnessing technology as a force for good, connecting people, enriching lives and elevating societies . Behind Subhu’s leadership, teams of Business Consultants and Digital Transformation Experts work tirelessly to turn promises of transformation into reality. Together they are shaping a future that is not only transformative but also secure and sustainable. Subhu’s expertise spans business strategy, technology solutions and customer centric advisory, making him a key influencer in shaping BT’s business solutions.

Michaela Black, Professor at Ulster University, her career has seen her apply Artificial Intelligence and gamification to a wide range of domains including: telecoms, healthcare, finance, education and marketing with 60+ publications and securing £7M+ in pedagogic and research funding.Michaela has actively engaged in a wide range of IT projects securing funding from a wide range of funders. Michaela has just successfully coordinated an EU-funded project MIDAS* (Meaningful Integration of Data, Analytics and Services) 2016-2020. This 40-month project, secured €4.5m in funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme. It delivered Data Science hardware and software solutions to connect fragmented health data and enable policymakers across 4+ European countries to analysis data and enhance policies across a range of diverse topics such as: mental health, obesity, diabetes and looked after children, as well as sharing and ensuring uptake of excellent data access practices such as MIDAS Honest Broker Service. She is also a member of a consortium who has just secured H2020 Europe funding for LUCIA: Understanding Lung Cancer related risk factors and their Impact starting January 2023.Michaela is a current co-director of the engage** technology, a stakeholder participation system, proven and effective platform for gaining participant input and key consensus on relevant topics using real-time digital technologies. engage has delivered successful engagements in partnership with organisations across government, industry, professional bodies, PPIs, NGOs and academia, on the island of Ireland and across Europe. This work has influenced topics such as Brexit, work force planning in Department of Health and Matrix NI Policy on Women in STEM.An active STEM ambassador, Michaela strives to encourage more women to join this field. Actively part of the Athena Swan (AS) team at UU to promote diversity and equality, and the School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems AS team which received a Bronze Award. In 2019 she secured £15K funding from EPSRC/University of Bath Inclusion Matters Scheme, to host a datathon which aimed to improve equality, diversity and inclusion within the engineering and physical sciences.

Rohan Kapoor is CIO at NIE Networks. As an accomplished Technology leader with 17+ years of experience, he specialises in strategy, digital transformation, and cost optimisation within global portfolios. Holding advanced certifications from prestigious institutions such as Oxford, & MIT, Rohans’ educational background underpins his expertise in driving large-scale transformations. He has a proven track record of aligning technology initiatives with business objectives, managing complex programs, and delivering significant cost efficiencies. Recognised for his leadership in energy, utilities, and transportation sectors, he is adept at navigating regulatory frameworks and driving sustainable innovation through emerging technologies like AI, cloud computing, and cybersecurity.

Bill McCluggage is Managing Director of Laganview Associates Ltd. He became the first CIO for the Irish Government in 2013 and was CIO for the Northern Ireland Civil Service (2005 – 2009). He joined the Cabinet Office in 2009 as deputy UK Government CIO. While in the Cabinet Office he was the Executive Director responsible for the UK Government’s ICT Strategy and was instrumental in the development of the Government G[1]Cloud, and was SRO for the Identity Assurance Programme, now GOV.UK Verify.

Martin Bishop has 8 years experience with AWS, working with public sector organisations on using cloud technology to unlock the power of their data. In his current role as Technologist for the AWS UK Public Sector, he partners with government departments on data projects to uncover insights and adopt modern data architectures. Prior to AWS, Martin worked on large data projects in the energy sector including large scale smart metering programs in multiple countries.

Josephine Kelly took up the position of Director of Corporate Services at Newry, Mourne and Down District Council in October 2022. An important part of her role in Council is to lead Digital Change and ensure the governance processes behind the change processes are in place. Josephine qualified as a chartered accountant in 1994 and started her career with PwC, acquiring a solid foundation in financial and business acumen. She has worked in the public sector for over 20 years which has included senior management positions in public service organisations such as South East Regional College (SERC), Legal Services Commission, Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute and as the Director of Finance in NI Fire & Rescue Service. She has held the position of Chair of the Local Government Performance Improvement Working since late 2023.