Pete is a Digital Director and Programme Lead with CGI Belfast. With over 30 years of technology and change leadership experience he has led several large-scale transformation and regulatory programmes. Pete has worked extensively across both the public and private sectors including with financial services, utilities, local government, policing & justice, media and FMCG to deliver major technology-driven programmes and business transformation. Pete has worked both locally and internationally, with clients in the UK, US, Europe, and the Middle East. He has worked in the ‘Big 4’ consulting environment for 20 years and prior to this he was a technologist in a large public-sector organisation. Pete has an MBA and a BSc in Computer Science & Systems.
What does your typical day look like?
I don’t really have a “typical” day, and in this industry, that’s almost the point. The daily schedule exists… briefly, then reality intervenes, priorities change and new problems emerge. The day reshapes itself by the hour. As the German Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke (the Elder) roughly put it, “no plan survives first contact”. Obviously, he wasn’t talking about digital transformation, but he might as well have been.
What are you currently working on?
I’m a Digital Director, part of a leadership team delivering a major digital transformation for a large government department. For me the role is the culmination of 30 years’ experience across people, process and technology, because transformation only truly occurs when those three domains move together. If one of those domains is out of sync, then the whole thing wobbles.
What inspired you to join this company in particular?
CGI stands out for one simple reason: it allows for a balance between ambition and innovation. There’s a genuine focus on delivering tangible outcomes, not just producing slide decks about them. It’s also a place where you’re trusted to get on with it. That combination is rarer than it should be.
Did you always want to work in this industry (tech)?
In a way, yes. I’ve always enjoyed taking things apart and rebuilding them better. Before consulting, I spent 23 years in the Royal Air Force, where I was lucky enough to be involved several technology implementations and people change programmes. That sparked the interest in technology consulting. A degree in Computer Science and Systems, followed later by an MBA, helped formalise that interest, and the curiosity was always there.
What’s your favourite part about your work?
Making things better, tangibly better. A lot of the job is dismantling “the way we’ve always done it” and rebuilding something that works better. The tricky part is doing that while keeping everything moving. It’s often compared to changing an aircraft engine mid-flight…with passengers still onboard. Not relaxing but never dull.
What would you say to people considering a career in tech?
If you like solving problems, you’ll never be bored. Tech isn’t just an industry anymore; it’s the engine behind every industry. The opportunities are enormous, but so is the responsibility.
How do you see this technology impacting our lives?
AI and automation aren’t just improving how we work, they are reshaping how we think. The real question isn’t what machines will do, but what we’ll choose to do when they take over the routine work, the things that we don’t realise take a good percentage of our thinking. When the “busy work” disappears, what fills the gap? That’s where things get interesting.
Who inspired you to work in this field?
My interest in AI and automation was sharpened after reading Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark. It’s one of those books that quietly changes how you see the future and your place in it. Well worth the read if you’re even slightly curious about where all this is heading.
What do you consider the most important tech innovation in recent years?
Advances in AI & automation, without question, but not just because of the technology itself. What has made a difference in the past few years is scale & accessibility. December 2022, with the release of ChatGPT, was a step-change moment. Suddenly, millions of people could use a recognised AI, not just read about it. The next big move? Quantum computing at scale. When that converges with advanced machine learning, everything is going to change.
What tech gadget could you not live without?
Probably my slightly battered big green notebook (which I should digitise!). It contains 30 years of lessons learned, what worked, what didn’t, and what shouldn’t be tried again (yet somehow always is). I revisit it regularly and I find that whilst technology continues to evolve, human behaviour seems to remain somewhat fixed.
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