Andrew Jordan, Chief Product and Technology Officer at travel management company CWT, trained as a lawyer before pursuing a career in IT. The CIO 100 member believes his legal studies at the University of Nottingham and the College of Law gave him commercial and communication skills that he can draw on in his current role.
“It’s always given me a good grounding in commerce, because a lot of the options that I studied in my law degree were very commercial,” he told CIO UK. “It’s also allowed me to think about communication in a very effective way – this sort of conversation, or how do you write a business plan, or how do you write a very compelling business case if we want to get board approval for something. I’d say it’s more of the softer skills that I’ve taken from my law degree.”
He added that lacking a background in computer science allowed him to have more impactful conversations with less non-technical colleagues.
“We’ve hired a new CFO recently, and I was joking with her the other day saying, I’m probably the only CTO you’ll ever meet who tries to save money, and not just spend it all,” he said.
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