James joined Durham in February as our new Chief Information Officer (CIO), bringing with him over 20 years’ experience. Most recently James was Director of Learning and Information Services for the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).

Welcome James! First things first, could you tell us what the role of CIO is?

As Chief Information Officer, I am responsible for overseeing the Computer and Information Services (CIS) department, which provides IT and digital capabilities across the University. IT touches every person and department across the University, so my role is really broad and it’s one of the things I love most! I get to help the rest of the organisation understand what they need and want to achieve using technology to help people innovate. Of course, there are inevitable problems with technology that we must work through and I’m here to help ensure that technology is making life easier for people rather than harder. 

What’s been a highlight of your career?

I think one of the amazing parts of being a leader or a manager, is helping people excel in the things that they’re passionate about. I get a real buzz from influencing and supporting people to achieve success. At UCLAN, we developed ‘Digilearn’ which was an initiative designed to support and empower academics to embed technology in their practice with confidence. It was a real highlight for me to see so many examples of people who were innovating or supporting their colleagues to be a champion for digital in the organisation.

What’s been the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

The one that sticks out for me is “there isn’t always a logical explanation”. In IT, a lot of us are quite analytical and want to understand everything, so it’s frustrating when we can’t get to the bottom of something. But sometimes, there just isn’t a logical explanation, and spending hours trying to explain it doesn’t add a lot of value to the organisation or to the individuals you’re working with, so it can be best to accept it and move on. 

I also really believe in, “Spend more time listening than talking”. I’ve been doing this a lot during my onboarding at Durham, simply listening and learning which has been really useful. But generally, I find that in situations, even if you don’t agree or want to correct someone, people appreciate and accept that much better if they feel like they’ve been listened to. 

What does a typical day look like for you? 

At the moment it’s mostly meetings, and in between I’ve been exploring the beautiful campus and working out where I need to be next! I’ve met so many people, who all have great things to say about the University - its clear people are passionate about working at Durham. I’ve also been shadowing some of my teams including the Field team and the Audio-Visual team, as well as looking around our data centres to see how our technology is supported by a really robust and reliable infrastructure. 

What do you enjoy most about your role?

I love the breadth of my role. IT touches all areas of the organisation, so I get to meet people from all departments and see the good (and the bad). CIS are involved in so much, and by proxy, so am I! Universities are some of the largest organisations, that have so many different kinds of people working in different disciplines, industries and sectors, they’re like little cities - there’s nowhere else like a university and nowhere more exciting to be involved in technology.

Beach in the Maldives

Time for your quick-fire round…

Favourite food? I love food. It depends what mood I’m in, but I love a really good fillet steak, medium rare, with a glass of red wine. But as long as it’s good food, cooked well, I love it! 

Best holiday? My wife and I went to the Maldives for our honeymoon, and it was paradise! We stayed in one of the huts on stilts in the middle of the ocean and it was absolute bliss. 

Any hobbies? I like to go running as much as possible, I find it really helps to clear my head. I’m a bit of a techy geek and like tinkering with computers and dabbling with DIY. I also used to do dragon boat racing which I loved and would really like to get back into. 

Any pets? We don’t have any pets at the moment because of allergies in the family, but we are considering getting some fish! 

Go-to radio station in the car? If I’m in fun mode, it’s Radio 1 and if I’m in serious mode it’s Radio 4, and if I’m somewhere between its Radio 2! I also listen to Spotify on my commute from Liverpool, and I found myself listening to the Movie Soundtracks playlist one morning and enjoyed a dramatic crescendo as the sun rose through the Pennines, that was pretty special.