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Thursday 15 Nov 2012

Network Rail CIO takes top IT award

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National

Susan Cooklin, Network Rail’s chief information officer has won ‘CIO of the Year’ at the UK IT Industry Awards 2012.

Susan leads the company’s information management department, overseeing around 700 staff who look after IT across complex track and signalling systems, 17 managed stations, corporate offices’ IT requirements and all the systems behind vital train timetable information fed through to passengers.

Since taking up the role in October 2009, she has placed the IT function at the heart of Network Rail’s business strategy and operation. This has included rollout of iPad and iPhone technology, a major upgrade to our Ebusiness suite, delivery of 300 screens in four months to Olympic stations and keeping all systems protected with no service disruption during the period of the Olympics.

Commenting on her award, Ms Cooklin said: “Being recognised by the UK IT industry is an immense achievement, not just for the information management department but for the whole of Network Rail. None of this would be achievable without the technology and engineering talent that exists within our company.”

David Higgins, Network Rail chief executive said: “In running the rail network, information – from communicating to passengers, timetabling of trains, recording asset condition through to efficient accounting and personnel management – is the life blood of running a cost efficient business. Not only has Susan led this by running a critical part of the organisation, over the last year she led the process of relocating the organisation to a new headquarters in Milton Keynes. Achieving this major change, as well as dealing with the London 2012 Olympics and the existing workload, is a reflection of her leadership and management skills.”

In May 2012 Susan was shortlisted as the only European finalist for a 'CIO Innovation Leadership’ award by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has recently been listed by Computer Weekly as one of the Top 25 most influential women in UK IT.