Tiffany Hall rose through the ranks in the back offices of the BBC, spending many years as head of business systems in news before making the news herself with her appointment as CIO in October 2009. Q. Where were you born? A. Hertford. Q. How many people work in your IT department? A. Our outsourced partner, Siemens, has about 1200 staff on the BBC account and in-house there are about 500. We run combined engineering and IT functions, so the staff aren’t just working on traditional IT. This excludes audience-facing developers. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe Q. What is the basic structure of your IT department? A. Strategy, architecture, supplier management, major projects, technology development and delivery, business systems, information security, technology operations. Q. Do you believe in mentoring? A. I do. I had useful in-house coaching from the BBC training department a few years ago and I have a senior manager mentor. Q. Which tools or tactics have given you most success in communicating? A. Cutting through increasing levels of heat in an email chain by picking up the phone or dropping by someone’s desk. Q. What has been your biggest mistake? A. Not working a ski season when I was young. Q. And your greatest success? A. I’m still pretty bowled over by getting this job, though it’s too soon to talk about success. Q. How do you keep up to date with the march of technology? A. I’m on a lot of daily/weekly update emails which I skim and dip into as something catches my eye. Now that I have a very short commute to work I struggle to fit in the level of industry reading that I’d like to. Q. How do you deal with stress? A. I try and keep a sense of perspective, and a sense of humour. Outdoor activity at the weekend helps as well. Q. What profession would you most/least like to attempt? A. I would hate to be an air traffic controller. Q. Do you have a sport you practise? A. A couple of years ago I took up white-water kayaking and more recently sea kayaking. I love being out on the water. Q. What else do you do outside of work? A. Cycling and a fair amount of eating out. Read the BBC entry in the CIO 100 Read the full CIO interview with Tiffany Hall, BBC CIO Related content opinion The changing face of cybersecurity threats in 2023 Cybersecurity has always been a cat-and-mouse game, but the mice keep getting bigger and are becoming increasingly harder to hunt. By Dipti Parmar Sep 29, 2023 8 mins Cybercrime Security brandpost Should finance organizations bank on Generative AI? Finance and banking organizations are looking at generative AI to support employees and customers across a range of text and numerically-based use cases. By Jay Limbasiya, Global AI, Analytics, & Data Management Business Development, Unstructured Data Solutions, Dell Technologies Sep 29, 2023 5 mins Artificial Intelligence brandpost Embrace the Generative AI revolution: a guide to integrating Generative AI into your operations The CTO of SAP shares his experiences and learnings to provide actionable insights on navigating the GenAI revolution. By Juergen Mueller Sep 29, 2023 4 mins Artificial Intelligence feature 10 most in-demand generative AI skills Gen AI is booming, and companies are scrambling to fill skills gaps by hiring freelancers to make the most of the technology. These are the 10 most sought-after generative AI skills on the market right now. By Sarah K. White Sep 29, 2023 8 mins Hiring Generative AI IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe