Hena Jalil
Managing Director, Global CIO
BT Group
Hena Jalil is currently the CIO for BT’s global division with a revenue of £4BN and operations in 180 countries, it provides global security, cloud and networking services to multinational companies worldwide. Hena is a transformational technical leader and engineer who has built an exceptional track record of delivering customer and business outcomes. In her various roles as CIO, she has consistently solved business challenges with commercial astuteness whilst boldly introducing and embedding innovation.
Learn more about leaders in the UK & Ireland CIO community here.
Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
Before my current role, I was the IT, Digital and Data Director at Openreach. Openreach is a BT subsidiary that connects nearly all homes and businesses in the United Kingdom to the national broadband and telephone network.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
I am only as successful as my team.
With disruption being a key theme of the past year, where do you see your role as a CIO going in the next 1-2 years?
The CIO role has already transitioned to become a lot more hands-on than ever before. True technical leadership is based on technical insight and strength. The future will see these roles go to individuals who are experts at commercially driving value from deep technical expertise.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the role as a CIO?
Have fun as every day is going to be a valuable adventure. Keep focus on learning and evolving.
Tell us 3 fun facts about yourself.
- I was brought up in Bahrain (Middle East).
- I am an ardent painter.
- My favourite video game is Hitman.
What is the value of joining an Evanta community?
Learning from and sharing with peers. Evolving together as a community.
Evanta Governing Body members share their insights and leadership perspectives to shape the agendas and topics that address the top priorities impacting business leaders today.
by CIOs, for CIOs
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