Credit: GLA

London’s chief digital officer Theo Blackwell and Scottish Government CIO Anne Moises were among those to receive an award in the annual New Year’s Honours list.

Moises has been awarded an OBE in recognition of “services to digital development”.  She has been part of the government technology scene in Scotland for more than two decades, including over 10 years as CIO.

Blackwell (pictured above), meanwhile, receives an MBE for “for services to local government digital transformation”. The former Camden councillor was appointed by mayor Sadiq Khan as London’s first-ever chief digital officer in August 2017.

Simon McKinnon, who is currently serving as interim chief digital, information, and technology officer at the Department for Work and Pensions, has been awarded a CBE “for public service”. McKinnon is the DWP’s digital director for children, health and pensions services, but is fulfilling CDIO duties while the department conducts a recruitment process to replace the recently departed Mayank Prakash. 

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Also recognised in the New Year’s Honours were Robert Gallagher, forensic and digital investigations manager at Greater Manchester Police, who receives an MBE “for services to policing and the community in Manchester”.

Dr Jennifer Schooling, director of Cambridge University’s Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, has been given an OBE in light of her “services to engineering and digital construction”.

A total of 1,148 people received honours, including numerous other public servants – not least HMRC chief executive Sir Jon Thompson, who was knighted. Other technologists recognised include Mustafa Suleyman – the co-founder of Google-owned artificial-intelligence firm DeepMind – who has been given a CBE.

The full list is available here.