Four distinct chapters occurred for me this momentous year. And it wasn’t just a momentous year because of Jubilees or sport, this was a big year for CIO UK. 

Early 2012 was dominated at CIO UK by the creation of a totally new CIO100. I had never been happy with the previous incarnation, it jarred with what CIOs were telling us, measuring them by the size of their IT budgets or estate rather than business outcomes. In a world racked with financial troubles, rating business technology leaders by their profligacy would only please those vendors benefiting from it, not the customers, workers, executives and shareholders of the organisation in question. 

The CIO 100 transforms

With the expert guidance and efforts of the CIO team of columnistsand contributors we rebooted the CIO 100 to focus on the issue that you the readers were telling us, and what we personally believed to matter, transformation. Despite the economic difficulties this has been an exciting year technologically as consumerisation, cloud computing and data analytics become increasingly important. The passion CIOs and the CIO team have for technology and the benefits it can offer really inspired our new CIO 100. 

One of the great pleasures of the year and the creation of the new CIO 100 was the feedback from the CIO community. I’ll probably never win any journalism awards or reveal some great injustice within a government, but to receive dozens of emails from CIOs, many not included in the CIO 100 applauding our focus on transformation and thanking us for setting out the case for CIOs at the helm of decision making was one of my career and year highlights. 

Why transformation matters to me

A new CIO 100 is being worked on at present for early 2013 and the focus remains on saluting the transformational role of the CIO. 

Unless you live on Mars or perhaps Australia this was a fantastic year for sport, but not just because Great Britain really learnt how to win, and win in style, but because to me, this year demonstrated the real benefits sport brings to our world. As a cyclist and mountain biker the year couldn’t be any better. But it isn’t just because Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France and Olympic Gold alongside heroes such as Chris Hoy and Laura Trott. No it was the amazing team spirit Wiggins and the whole of Team GB demonstrated during that amazing summer.  Wiggins, in the coveted yellow jersey leading out team mates to win a stage, the way all our athletes were present and over joyed  for their colleagues, whether dominant winners like Ennis and Farah or those less lucky inspired me beyond belief. 

All walks of UK life must take inspiration from the transformation and achievements of our sporting community, I know I have. 

The CIO Summitis now in its third year and continues to improve. Although one of the most intense and stressful aspects of the role, that pain is worthwhile. Every year the insights and knowledge shared by the CIOs on stage to the community under line my points above about the transformational and important role of the CIO. Once again I would like to thank all of those who speak and attend. 

It has been another great year for CIO interviews and it would be wrong of me to highlight some and not others, but to everyone who has agreed to and taken part in a CIO interview, I would like to say thank you for being so frank and sharing your business vision with me. A listing of my interviews is here.

I cannot let the year end without some well deserved thank you messages. We are a lean team on CIO and it takes a great deal of commitment and effort by all involved. Particular thanks has to go to Joanne Sperryn, Amie Lane and Rhys Lewis for their incredible efforts in online design, event management and editorial production, this trio is the solid foundations of everything at CIO, so a very large and personal thank you. The CIO columnists and contributors have already been thanked for their efforts with the CIO 100, but throughout the year they contribute valuable content and knowledge. And I must thank you the readership, your attendance to our dinners, webcasts, events and time in reading our prose is never under appreciated. 

Thank you all for a great 2012 and 2013 will be even more interesting.