Mr Michael Eaton
Deputy Director, ICT Business Strategy & Planning, Welsh Government
Policy Fellow of the Centre for Science and Policy
"I found the planned week to be very useful, timely, enjoyable and informative, enabling me to firmly engage on the policy and delivery topics that are most pressing in my area. Gaining an understanding of areas of scientific, technological and organisational behaviour work taking place across the University - and the individuals involved - will have a real bearing on my next steps over the coming year." (May 2010)
From April 2012 Michael Eaton has been working as Deputy Director responsible for ICT Business Strategy and Planning across all Welsh Government Departments creating new approaches to collaboration, introducing Enterprise Architecture disciplines and reviewing the balance between policy, business, technology and vendor management insight. Prior to this appointment he was the Director of the Public Sector Broadband Aggregation Network, Welsh Government. Michael has been a senior civil servant for six years following 23 years' experience in high-tech multinational corporations (raising finance, R&D, product management, strategic marketing, new business development and corporate venturing).
Having been appointed to lead Broadband Wales (a £115 million market intervention across the public and private sector) and to lead national ICT strategy, he then joined the First Minister's Senior Science Advisors Group, and also represented Wales at the UK Cabinet Office CIO Council, helping to create the Government IT Profession and IT Academy.
He now leads Public Sector Broadband Aggregation (PSBA) activity in Wales, a complex multi-agency collaboration (£250 million over 7 years), forming a major infrastructure component in Wales's public service improvement programme. He is also a member of the Senior Leadership Forum, a non-executive Corporate Governance Director for the Department for Education, and a non-executive Advisory Board member for the Institute of Advanced Broadcasting at the University of Wales, Newport. His core interests are exploiting ICT in all its forms, and coping with complexity in delivery systems that are hybrid human/technology creations.