Sheffield City Council has hired Mark Gannon as its director of business change and information solutions, in a CIO-level role. 

Gannon started working at the council last week, and will be responsible for the council’s change, ICT and digital agendas. He will report to the executive director of resources. 

In an interview with Public Technology, Gannon explained that he will also be the lead client for the organisation’s strategic partnership with Capita, and that he would be working with members and colleagues across the council, and partners from all sectors to drive the agendas that he is looking after.

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“I’m really excited about the wider digital and ‘smart’ work that is going on across the city and I’ll be helping with this,” he said.

Gannon has a long background in local government, with experience in a range of the areas that he will be responsible for in the role.

“My last local government role was at Nottingham City Council where I was CIO Director of Customer Access," he told PT.

"Most recently, I was in the private sector working for a consultancy firm which advises public sector organisations on how to thrive in the information economy by adopting the latest thinking on digital. It feels, therefore, that the role here is a perfect fit for me and I’m really excited about working with the amazing talent in the city to make a real difference for Sheffield."

Gannon told PT that there were a number of reasons he was attracted to the role.

“I live in Sheffield and I love the place so the chance to be able to make a real difference to the lives of the people in the city was the key attraction for me,” he said.

Gannon added: “It has two excellent universities and a thriving digital sector and I was just really excited at the prospect of getting involved in such an ambitious and creative environment and being able to contribute to it."