Joanna Drake

‘My career began with what felt like a backwards step to the help desk, but it’s where I learned that technology can be a game changer for a business and Technology could be a place for me to enjoy my career”

Technology wasn’t Jo’s first career choice. Instead, she was destined for a sports career until injury forced her to put her sporting ambitions to one side and she took a role on an IT help desk.  It was there she learnt her trade and realised she wanted to be part of fixing the bigger problem, progressing into service management strategy roles at Diageo, Accenture and Yahoo.

With a demonstrable record of driving successful global technology transformations, Jo went on to hold senior positions including Head of Global Service Management at Betfair and the BBC where she helped to build a world-class centralised operations team.

Jo went onto senior leadership roles as SVP Global Technology Services group and then CTO at Wood Mackenzie, Senior director of engineering at Skyscanner and is now CIO at THG.

Jo is a people orientated leader who is passionate about leadership, Diversity & Inclusion.  She also sits on the advisory boards of the Global CIO Institute, Hottopics, Forrester and the UK IT Leaders group.

In 2022, Jo was awarded the #1 position on the CIO 100 CIO 100 2022 – UK | CIO