Beyond Technology: The CIO, CTO and CDO as Transformation Leaders
Higher Education is navigating a period in which digital capability is becoming inseparable from institutional capability. Financial constraint, artificial intelligence, ageing technology, cybersecurity, changing student expectations and the need to improve organisational productivity are converging at precisely the point when universities have less capacity for expensive or poorly targeted investment. This is reflected in recent sector developments. In May 2026, Jisc launched a digital maturity assessment for UK Higher Education in response to challenges including the rapid emergence of AI, entrenched technical legacy, evolving approaches to teaching and learning and changing student requirements. Significantly, the assessment is designed to support executive decision-making and encourage institutions to take an organisation-wide approach to digital transformation. Against this backdrop, the roles of the Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Data Officer are becoming increasingly important to the strategic leadership of universities. The titles and responsibilities will vary between institutions. In some universities these responsibilities will sit within a single Chief Digital and Information Officer portfolio; elsewhere they may be distributed between different leaders. The underlying strategic challenge, however, is increasingly consistent. The question is no longer simply how universities manage technology. It is how technology, information and data enable universities to transform. From technology strategy to university strategy Traditionally, technology leadership could be viewed primarily through the lens of infrastructure, systems and services: keeping networks available, maintaining applications, delivering technology projects and providing reliable support. Those responsibilities remain essential. But they are no longer sufficient. Digital capability now touches almost every aspect of university strategy: recruitment and admissions, teaching and assessment, research, student experience, professional services, estates, partnerships and institutional decision-making. Jisc’s digital maturity work illustrates this breadth, encompassing leadership and organisational culture, digital and AI capability, infrastructure and technical legacy, data and knowledge management, education and research, partnerships, sustainability and inclusion. Digital transformation cannot simply be delegated to an IT function because it increasingly involves transforming the university itself. The challenge of doing more with less This transformation is taking place within an extraordinarily difficult financial environment. Universities need to modernise ageing infrastructure, address cyber risk, improve student-facing services, invest in AI and data capability and deliver greater operational efficiency, while simultaneously demonstrating much stronger returns from institutional investment. This creates an important challenge for CIOs and CTOs. The task is not simply to identify the next technology investment. It is to help develop a coherent institutional architecture that reduces unnecessary complexity, enables future change and prevents universities from continually adding new systems to an already fragmented technology environment. Digital Universities UK 2026 captured this changing emphasis in its focus on moving from simply adopting technology towards designing with purpose, including the use of shared resources and greater cross-institutional collaboration. Technology leaders therefore need to help their institutions ask: These are institutional strategic choices, not simply technical decisions. AI changes the conversation Artificial intelligence makes this leadership agenda even more urgent. AI has the potential to influence teaching, assessment, research, administration, student services, operational productivity and institutional decision-making. Current approaches to assessing university AI and digital maturity increasingly consider technology alongside strategy, people, capability and institutional utilisation. But enthusiasm for AI also creates complexity. Universities face questions around information security, intellectual property, academic integrity, data quality, ethics, governance and skills. They must distinguish between experimentation that builds institutional knowledge and the uncontrolled proliferation of technologies that increase cost and complexity without creating demonstrable value. CIOs and CTOs need to provide both ambition and challenge: helping their institutions understand what emerging technologies make possible while being equally clear about what needs to be true for them to be implemented responsibly and successfully. Data as institutional infrastructure The Chief Data Officer brings another increasingly important dimension. Universities hold extraordinary volumes of information about students, research, finances, workforce, estates and organisational performance. Yet having large quantities of data is not the same as being a data-informed institution. Fragmented systems, inconsistent definitions, unclear ownership and variable data quality can make it difficult for leaders to establish a genuinely shared understanding of institutional performance. That challenge becomes more important with AI because the effectiveness of many AI-enabled applications ultimately depends upon the quality, accessibility and governance of the information on which they rely. Recognising this, Jisc’s 2026 digital maturity work explicitly includes data and knowledge management alongside digital leadership, AI capability and technical infrastructure. The CDO therefore has an opportunity to shift the conversation from data as something the university collects to data as a strategic institutional asset. That means asking: The ambition should not simply be better dashboards. It should be better decisions. Cybersecurity as institutional resilience There is another area where the strategic importance of technology leadership has become particularly apparent: cybersecurity. Modern universities are highly connected organisations, combining complex digital estates with extensive external partnerships and large communities of staff and students. Digital infrastructure increasingly underpins the institution’s ability to teach, conduct research and operate. Cybersecurity therefore cannot be viewed solely as a technical problem managed by IT. It is fundamentally an issue of institutional risk, governance and resilience. This wider understanding is reflected in current sector discussion, with Digital Universities UK 2026 explicitly positioning cybersecurity governance alongside privacy and ethical governance as part of enabling innovation, rather than simply restricting it. CIOs and CTOs consequently need strong relationships with University Secretaries and Registrars, risk leaders, governing bodies and executive colleagues so that digital resilience becomes part of institutional governance, business continuity and strategic risk. The challenge is to ensure that the institution understands its exposure, makes conscious choices about risk and has sufficient organisational capability to respond when disruption occurs. The CIO, CTO and CDO as strategic partners All of this points towards a wider evolution of these roles. Technology and data leaders need to be involved early in institutional strategy, rather than being asked at the end of the process to provide the technology or information required to implement decisions already made. A strategically positioned CIO, CTO or CDO can encourage executive teams and governing bodies to ask: That
Executive Search, Interim Management or Leadership Advisory: Which Does Your Organisation Need?
When organisations face a leadership challenge, appointing a new executive isn’t always the answer. Understanding whether you need to recruit, bring in interim expertise or develop your existing leadership capability can make a significant difference to organisational performance. Leadership challenges rarely present themselves in the same way. One organisation may be struggling to appoint a permanent Chief Executive. Another may need experienced leadership to deliver a complex transformation programme. Elsewhere, an established executive team may need support with succession planning, assessment or leadership development. Each situation requires a different response. At Veredus, we work with organisations across government, defence, education, transport and the wider public sector to help them identify, appoint and develop the leadership capability they need. Through our Executive Search, Interim Management and Leadership Advisory services, we see how important it is to identify the underlying leadership requirement before deciding how to address it. What is the difference between executive search, interim management and leadership advisory? Executive search, interim management and leadership advisory are three distinct but complementary approaches to addressing organisational leadership needs. The right approach depends on the nature of the challenge, the timeframe involved and the capabilities already available within the organisation. When should an organisation use executive search? Executive search is typically the most appropriate solution when an organisation needs to appoint a permanent senior leader with the experience, judgement and capability to deliver its long-term strategic objectives. Unlike traditional recruitment, executive search involves proactively identifying and engaging potential candidates, including individuals who may not be actively seeking a new opportunity. This is particularly important for senior appointments where the available talent pool is limited, specialist expertise is required or the organisation needs to attract candidates from outside its established networks. At Veredus, our executive search work spans Chief Executive, executive leadership and Board appointments across complex and highly scrutinised environments. We understand that the success of an appointment depends on considerably more than a candidate’s professional experience. Leadership style, organisational context, stakeholder expectations and the ability to navigate change all influence whether an individual will succeed. Our track record includes a 90% successful placement rate across 657 assessed appointments, reflecting the importance we place on identifying the right leadership fit. Executive search is most appropriate when: When is interim management a better solution? Interim management is often the right approach when an organisation needs experienced leadership or specialist capability quickly, but a permanent appointment is not necessarily required. Interim professionals can provide immediate capacity, independent expertise and focused delivery against defined objectives. Although interim management is frequently associated with temporary executive cover, its applications extend much further. At Veredus, we support organisations with interim executive leadership, functional management, programme and project management, and specialist transformation requirements. For example, an organisation undertaking a major restructuring may need an experienced transformation director to lead the programme. A government department may require specialist programme leadership to deliver a time-critical initiative. A university may need interim financial leadership while determining its longer-term operating model. In each case, the requirement is not simply to fill a vacancy. It is to secure the expertise necessary to deliver a particular outcome. Interim management is most appropriate when: Interim appointments can also support longer-term succession planning by creating space for organisations to assess their future leadership requirements without rushing a permanent decision. What is leadership advisory and when is it needed? Leadership advisory focuses on understanding and improving the effectiveness of an organisation’s existing and future leadership capability. Not every leadership challenge requires an external appointment. An organisation may already have talented senior leaders but lack clarity around succession, collective accountability or the capabilities required to deliver its future strategy. Leadership advisory helps organisations make more informed decisions about these issues through structured assessment, insight and development. At Veredus, our Leadership Advisory services support organisations in evaluating leadership capability, strengthening executive team effectiveness and preparing for future leadership requirements. This becomes particularly valuable during periods of organisational change, when the capabilities that supported past performance may not be sufficient for future demands. Leadership advisory is most appropriate when: Can organisations combine executive search, interim management and leadership advisory? Yes. In many cases, combining these approaches provides a more effective response than treating recruitment, interim resourcing and leadership development as separate activities. Consider an organisation preparing for the retirement of its Chief Executive. Leadership advisory may help the Board assess internal succession options and establish the capabilities required of the next leader. Executive search can then identify and assess candidates against those requirements, while an interim appointment may provide continuity if there is a gap between the outgoing and incoming Chief Executive. The same principle applies to organisational transformation. An interim leader may be appointed to deliver immediate change, while leadership assessment identifies the capabilities required to sustain that change. Executive search may subsequently support the appointment of permanent leaders to take the organisation forward. This integrated approach helps organisations address immediate pressures while remaining focused on longer-term leadership effectiveness. How should organisations decide which leadership solution they need? The starting point should be a clear understanding of the organisational challenge rather than an assumption that a particular vacancy needs to be filled. At Veredus, we encourage organisations to consider several questions: These questions help establish whether the most appropriate response is to recruit new leadership, introduce interim expertise, strengthen existing capability or combine several approaches. Leadership solutions for complex organisations Leadership decisions in government, defence, higher education and transport frequently involve competing priorities, demanding stakeholder environments and significant public accountability. Organisations operating in these sectors need leaders who can navigate complexity while delivering measurable outcomes. With experience supporting more than 300 organisations and making over 675 senior leadership placements, Veredus brings an understanding of both the leadership market and the environments in which our clients operate. Our work across Executive Search, Interim Management and Leadership Advisory enables us to consider leadership requirements from several perspectives, helping organisations make decisions that reflect their immediate needs and longer-term ambitions. Frequently asked questions
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