Mike Bracken named as first ever government chief data officer

Sceptics say CDO role isn't here to stay, but UK and US governments have both hired CDOs this week

Mike Bracken has been named as the first ever government chief data officer (CDO) - a role that he will combine with his current job as the head of Government Digital Service (GDS).

Bracken was ranked 19th in Computing's inaugural IT Leaders 100 list, as a result of masterminding the extension of public services online.

The government had poached him from Guardian News and Media back in May 2011, and made him the executive director of digital at the Cabinet Office.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude made the announcement of Bracken's new role at a roundtable event yesterday, which brought together 16 local and regional authorities who the government claimed are "setting the standard in open data and transparency".

In his new role, Bracken will be responsible for developing a new government data standard, championing open data, and encouraging the use of data in the decision-making process. The government said he will lead on developing greater data analysis skills and capability across government.

"I'm delighted to announce that Mike Bracken who has spearheaded this government's digital revolution will also become the government's chief data officer," said Maude.

"He is the ideal person to take our already world-leading approach to open data even further, while strengthening data analysis skills in Whitehall," he added.

The emergence of the CDO role has shaken the IT industry; it is still a relatively new function and according to Harvey Nash CIO Survey 2014, only seven per cent of organisations had employed a CDO last year. But analyst firm Gartner expects this to rise to 25 per cent by 2017. However, the role, which last year had an average basic salary of £90,000, has its sceptics.

James Hallahan, COO of Harvey Nash, told Computing last year that the future of the CDO role may not be so rosy.

"There is a general sense in the market that the CDO role will die away over the next 10 years. It's felt that the next generation of C-level execs will come through with digital in their DNA and therefore hoover up the responsibility of the CDO," he said.

Clive Longbottom, analyst at Quocirca, recently suggested that the role is not needed.

"The CDO role is a red herring that is costing not only money in salary and overheads, but is probably negatively impacting the overall bottom line," he claimed.

But the UK government is not the only organisation that is keen to hire a CDO. The US government has hired Jason Goldman, a former employee of Google, Medium and Twitter, as its first CDO.

"Goldman brings an energy and coveted expertise as someone who's helped shape the digital age," President Obama said in a statement.

It follows on from recent hires at the US government, with DJ Patil being hired as chief data scientist last month, and former VMware CIO Tony Scott, who Computing interviewed in December, taking the reins as the new CIO of the White House.