Sarah Wilkinson was presented with the award after her keynote on Digitising the National Health Service at the 3rd UK CDO Summit in London, England, last week, by CDO Club founder David Mathison.

In 2017, Wilkinson became CEO of NHS Digital, the executive body of the Department of Health, which provides information, data, and IT systems for health and social care nationally.

Prior to joining NHS Digital, Wilkinson was Chief Digital, Data and Technology Officer at The Home Office, with responsibility for the delivery of technology services for the UK Border, Visas and Immigration, Asylum, Policing and Counter-Terror.

In December 2017, she was voted No 2 in the TechUK 50, Computer Weekly's poll of the Top 50 Most Influential Leaders in the UK IT Industry, having been voted No 3 in the December 2017 list. In April 2016, she was named No 26 in the CIO 100, CIO Magazine's ranking of the most transformative and disruptive CIOs in the UK. 

"Sarah has two decades of experience in running complex IT organisations in both the financial services sector and in government. As CEO of NHS Digital, she is now dedicated to spearheading digital transformation of their IT capabilities, and to modernising health and care to provide maximum value to patients and the public, remarked David Mathison, CEO of the CDO Club and CDO Summit.

"Sarah has also made the strategic transition from CDO to CEO, and undertaken numerous Non Executive Director roles, demonstrating the strategic value she provides to organisations and stakeholders in both the public and private sectors. It is my distinct honour to name Sarah as the UK Chief Digital Officer of the Year 2017," said Mathison.

Sarah Wilkinson said: "I am very honoured to receive this accolade from the CDO Club. It's a huge privilege to be working in the digital, data, and technology space at such an incredibly exciting point in time. Digital has radically transformed many sectors since the start of the internet era, but in many sectors, including healthcare, the transformation still has a very long way to run. The next few years will be a time of accelerating digital transformation delivering incredible opportunities and benefits. I, and all my colleagues at NHS Digital, look forward to delivering these opportunities and benefits across the NHS."

The New-York headquartered CDO Club has given the annual CDO of the Year award in the US, UK, EU, ANZ, and Japan to both Chief Digital Officers (since 2013) and Chief Data Officers (since 2016). This will be the first time that the Chief Digital Officer accolade has been awarded within the healthcare industry since they began in 2016.