Mayor appoints Theo Blackwell as London’s first chief digital officer

Blackwell will:

Through doing the above, Blackwell will play a key role in realising the Mayor’s ambition to make London the world’s smartest city, ensuring that the capital’s status as a global tech hub helps transform the way public services are designed and delivered, making them more accessible, efficient and responsive to the needs of Londoners. The appointment fulfils a key manifesto commitment made by the mayor.

He joins the mayor’s team following work at GovTech accelerator Public Group, advising start-ups on the growing market in local public services, and was previously head of policy & public affairs for the video games industry’s trade body, Ukie – where he ran a ‘Next Gen Skills’ campaign to get coding back on the curriculum.

Blackwell brings more than 20 years of experience in technology and digital transformation in both the public and private sector. In his role as cabinet member for finance, technology and growth at Camden Council, Blackwell has established Camden as London’s leading digital borough through its use of public data – and this year it received national recognition as Digital Leaders’ ‘Council of the year’.