In partnership with Cognizant and Google Cloud, we are delighted to be launching a series of networking dinners to bring together a community of CIOs to ask the burning questions and tackle the undeniable challenges of our age. In the first in the series, we explore what effective leadership looks like in the age of sustainable growth.
Chief Information Officers have been instrumental change-makers in recent years. They’ve been at the forefront of breaking down outdated silos. Skilful CIOs have operated as technology translators and business advocates to drive digital transformation throughout their organisation, and demonstrate the return on investment.
But now Chief Information Officers are facing an additional pressing imperative. Against the backdrop of record temperatures in the UK and world-wide geopolitical uncertainty, the argument for action on the climate crisis is now economic as well as moral. CIOs need to be on the frontfoot of a shift in thinking about growth and green initiatives, and will be indispensable in driving forward the agenda on how to use tech tools for sustainable development.
This will be no mean feat, and to achieve results, CIOs will need to leverage their relationships with CEO and boards, their teams and their peers more than ever. The event will bring together forward-thinking CIOs to discuss and debate what leadership looks like in the age of sustainable growth.
- Understanding and influencing the businesses’ vision and working with the CEO and the board to embed sustainable technology solutions
- Considering how to evolve and adapt tech infrastructure to meet the need for green business
- Exploring how ways of working, mindsets and leadership styles might need to evolve to realise a green vision for business growth
Wednesday 30th Novemebr 18:00 - 21:30 - central London
- 18:00 Arrival and drinks reception
- 18:30 Sit for dinner and welcome from Cognizant and Google Cloud
- 18:40 Collaborating on the Race to Net Zero
- Caroline Gorksi, Chief Executive, R² Factory at Rolls Royce
- 19:00 Dinner commences, discussion under Chatham House
- 21:30 Night caps and carriages
Hear from...
Caroline Gorski (she/her), Chief Executive, R² Factory, Rolls-Royce
Caroline has worked at the transformational edge of emerging digital technologies for more than 25 years, leading businesses’ strategic response to technology and executing on organisational changes, new market developments and new business model launches.
Following senior roles at Telefonica, Sodexo, O2 and the Digital Catapult, Caroline led Rolls-Royce's R² Data Labs for five years, delivering £400m of value back into the Group. During the pandemic, she pioneered the Emergent Alliance, which convened over 50 corporates, individuals, NGOs and governments for the first time to leverage expertise, data and resources to aid societal recovery.
Now leading the R² Factory founding team, Caroline drives the company’s strategic vision to create 'a safe space to do hard things' by blending unique experience, cutting-edge capability, thought-leadership and new ways of working to create new opportunities and business models.
Voted one of the most influential people in UK technology (Computer Weekly UKTech50, 2022), Caroline holds a Masters degree from Oxford and has an unfinished PhD in modern gothic literature and how we all use scary monsters to help contain social anxiety.
