Peter Bole is Head of ICT Commissioning at Kent County Council. He is responsible for ICT strategy and identifying and sourcing the council's business and ICT solutions. Starting his career in computer programming and ICT training, Peter joined Kent County Council as a financial systems developer in 1990. When a single ICT function was established across the council in 1997, he became Head of ICT Service Delivery and was responsible for the rationalisation of the then multiple ICT teams, networks and technical architectures. He also worked on the design of an ICT delivery model that would improve the alignment of ICT with the strategic objectives of the council, and established the discrete roles of CIO (Commissioning) and CTO (Operations).

Jos Creese is the Head of IT for Hampshire County Council. He oversees the IT enabled change programmes for the council and the support for a range of partnership projects with other public service organisations. In addition he is involved in a number of national groups, working with Socitm, the National CIO Council and the Corporate IT Forum. Jos has over 20 years' experience in IT management. He joined Hampshire CC in 2002, following an earlier career in IT at district, unitary and county level, having started out in IT in the Department of Health.

Glyn Evans is Assistant to the Chief Executive on Transformation at Birmingham City Council and has over twenty-five years experience in IT support within the local authority sector. His remit is to drive forward a business transformation programme across the Council. His current challenges are nurturing the organisational commitment to the change programme and developing the capacity to support it, including seeking a strategic partner from the private sector. He chairs the Society of IT Management's Information Age Group and is a member of the CIO Council, an advisory body established by Ian Watmore, the Head of the Cabinet Office's e-Government Unit.

Helen Finnemore is Head of ICT & eGovernment at Teesdale District Council, where she is responsible for the strategic direction of ICT at a corporate level and maintains some hands on technical ability to support and develop the ICT service. She has over 22 years of IT management experience, of which the past 12 have been spent in local government. During this time she has gained the ISEB Managers Certificate and a Diploma in Management Services. Some of her working experience has included IT forensic science and she has been appropriately skilled to act as an expert witness in this area in the past. Helen has a BSc (Hons) Computer Science and over 10 years experience of implementing and supporting various UNIX environments, including programming in “C”, Perl and MS SQL. She has undertaken various courses and implemented Microsoft platforms and IP Networks, including VOIP.

Noelle Godfrey is Head of IT Governance, Skills and Strategy at Cambridgeshire County Council. With a primary focus on ensuring a strategic approach to the use of IT across the authority, her current responsibilities include the development of the Council’s IT strategy and technology architecture, provision of the IT skills and training service and business liaison within the authority and with key partners. Noelle has over twenty years experience in public sector IT and previous roles have included IT support and service management and large-scale project management. Current change projects include the implementation of a Voice-Over-IP based telephony system for the County and support for IT enabled service transformation across the authority with a particular emphasis on flexible and remote working.

Chris Guest is Head of ICT and Customer Services at Flintshire County Council in North Wales. He has almost 30 years experience in local government starting as a Trainee Computer Operator with Clwyd County Council and joining Flintshire in 1996 at Local Government Reorganisation in Wales. Chris has corporate responsibility for all aspects of ICT and improving Customer Services within the Council. Chris is a past president of Socitm and has for many years been a member of the Socitm Insight steering group and active in Socitm Cymru activities working with the Welsh Local Government Association and the Welsh Assembly Government on national ICT initiatives within Wales.

Vic Freir is Head of Information and Communications Technology at Somerset County Council. He has over 35 years of experience in the public sector and has worked in English and Welsh authorities at district, county and unitary levels. His involvement in financial administration, audit and, for the last 20 years, ICT management has given him a comprehensive local authority background. Vic is a chartered member of the British Computer Society and has championed the shared services agenda for the past 10 years through leadership of the Somerset Online consortium and latterly with Southwest One, currently the largest strategic partnership of its type in the country.

Steve Hopson is Head of ICT at Cheshire County Council with responsibility for both strategy and delivery of ICT services. He is a director and Vice President (President elect) of Socitm and chairs the society's North West Region. Starting out with BT Technical Engineering, he became a Project Manager at the Metropolitan Police and subsequently worked in private sector sales and account management before moving to Local Government. He has over 30 years experience in the IT industry. A graduate of the Public Services Leaders Scheme, Steve is a Chartered member of the British Computer Society and has an MBA.

Jane Jack is Head of ICT Services at Warwick District Council. She is responsible for the whole of the ICT service, including infrastructure (voice and data), applications support, technical support, IT training, and formulation of ICT Strategy, nothing is outsourced. She was a founding member of Warwickshire Direct Partnership (Association of IT Managers). The Partnership now runs a county- wide CRM which is used by all 6 Councils in Warwickshire. Jane has over 35 years experience in ICT as well as local government and is a PRINCE 2 practitioner.

Paul Lea is Head of ICT Service Management in Devon and Cornwall Constabulary. He has worked for 37 years in the ICT profession, of which the majority has been spent in the Police Service. Current areas of responsibilty include the governance and delivery of a major Managed Services Contract, as well as the implementation of ITIL Service Management best practice. For a number of years he served as the Police Group representative on the SOCITM National Council.

Mick Phythian is currently ICT Manager at Ryedale District Council in North Yorkshire. He is responsible for the e-government strategy and related issues. He has over 30 years experience in public and private sector IT, from programming through project management. He has an MA in IT Management from Sheffield University that involved a dissertation on electronic service delivery, which was later written up and published in a leading academic journal. He is currently researching electronic government at the Centre for Computing & Social Responsibility at De Montfort University Leicester towards a PhD. Mick is on the Yorkshire & Humber regional executive of Socitm and was for its lifetime involved with Yorkshire & Humber Connects, the regional e-government body. He was also involved in the Government IT Profession Working Group.

Nicola Ratcliffe is Head of ICT, Procurement & Customer Services at Kennet District Council. She heads up a diverse department of 70 staff across 5 teams including IS Technology, IS Business Unit, Procurement, Customer Services and CRM & Support. The department provides a variety of services to internal and external customers. Nicola is specifically responsible for department restructuring, quality & performance management, project management and strategy development. Nicola began at Wandsyke District Council and has over 20 years experience in local authorities as an analyst/ programmer and software support manager. She has a Diploma in Management Studies and gained a MBA in 2003 and has particular expertise in organisational change.

Dylan Roberts has been Head of ICT at Leeds City Council since 2004, where he leads 345 IT professionals delivering operational services and IT capital programs. He is also responsible for facilitation and development of ICT enabled business strategies. He has been recognised, by awards, for the transformation of ICT Service in Leeds into best practice/value for money organization. Dylan is on the Yorkshire & Humber regional executive of Socitm and chairs the West Yorkshire CIO group. He has over twenty years of experience in public sector ICT, and holds an MBA qualification. Prior to joining Leeds CC, he was Head of ICT at Denbighshire County Council.

Steve Sankey is Head of ICT at Nottinghamshire County Council, where he is responsible for all IT aspects, which covers around 250 IT professionals, and a budget approaching £10m. He has over 30 years experience in the IT industry, having gained first class honours in Mathematics and is a chartered Information technology professional (BCS CITP).

Richard Steel moved to Newham Council in 1989, where he has undertaken a number of ICT management roles before becoming the CIO responsible for ICT and Information Governance strategy, infrastructure and systems. He won the “Public Sector CIO of the Year” award at the 2005 UK Technology, Innovation & Growth awards. He is a member of Newham's Strategic Management Board, the Public Sector Infrastructure Group, the Government Connect Stakeholder Board, and of the Identity & Passport Service Local Government Advisory Board. He is also the Socitm President and member of the Socitm Information Age Government group. Richard started his IT career in Merchant Banking, and became an Assistant Director of Morgan Grenfell (now Deutsche Bank). He has an MBA in IT Hybrid Management through Henley Management College/ Brunel University.

Angela Waite is Head of ICT & Central Services at Canterbury City Council. She has over 20 years of experience in ICT management. She started in Central Electricity Generating board as application developer and systems support. Subsequently she has worked with Rochester City Council through local government reorganisation to Medway Council, where she helped create and manage the ICT team, developed service level agreements and performance measures using the Socitm Key Performance Indicators. Angela joined Socitm's Best Value Group and was then elected chair of its successor, the Performance Management Group, in December 2002. She became Socitm president in 2005. She is on the programme board delivering the Kent Connects partnership and is an accredited IDeA peer.