Zakariya Yahiya
Chief Information Officer at Fortrus Ltd
Can you please provide a little introduction about yourself
My role as Chief Information Officer at Fortrus is a fantastically varied one. I lead the full end-to-end software development lifecycle capability as well as the innovation, marketing, quality and compliance departments. I live in North West London with my wife and our young son, and I am passionate about improving outcomes through technological innovation.
What has your journey to your position been like? What path have you taken?
The path to reach this point has been an enjoyable one, though my long-term destination was not always clear, and I’m not sure it will ever be! I started out almost 12 years ago on a PwC graduate programme where I became a qualified ACA chartered accountant and learned a great deal about business and people very quickly.
From there, my journey was shaped by my desire to follow my passion for innovation and entrepreneurialism. I moved into management consulting, working cross-industry across a range of specialisms on some very interesting and significant projects. My next step was a pivot into healthcare strategy consulting as I sought out the type of change programmes where my interest lied.
I realised at that point that I could potentially make a bigger impact and hold more varied roles by working for specialist start-ups and SMEs, all the while satisfying my hunger for innovation and entrepreneurial environments. I was introduced to healthcare technology in my next role, building out operations for an innovative private hospital in the heart of London’s Harley Street district. The possibilities for healthcare software seemed limitless for me and the relationship it had with driving clinical innovation really captured my imagination.
It was then that I joined Fortrus, initially in a role leading on product innovation. I quickly took on more responsibility, supporting our commercial, operational and technical capability to deliver our innovative products to a wider audience. While perhaps not a ‘traditional’ route, I feel very fortunate to have learned such an enormous amount to help prepare me for such an exciting role.
Has it always been your vision to reach the position you’re at? Was your current role part of your vision to become a tech leader?
It was always my ambition to have the largest impact possible, driving genuine change for something that was important to me. While the CIO role was not a specific target from an early stage, it certainly aligns with the goals I set myself. The strategic, data-led and innovation focused nature of the role neatly match my ambitions, as does the opportunity to support users to achieve and improve important outcomes across the public sector.
Have you had a role model or mentor that has helped you on your journey?
While there has not been one single individual mentor I would call out that has specifically supported me throughout my journey in this way, I’ve had the fortune of learning from a number of brilliantly talented leaders. The variety, expertise and personality of each of these individuals served to shape my development quite considerably. Those with the greatest impact on me have truly gone out of their way to invest their own time in my development and personal growth. They always provided honest, transparent advice and guidance, with a keen eye on my own personal long-term ambitions. This is a characteristic I very much appreciate and seek to replicate, given the opportunity.
How do you see the role of the technology leader evolving over the next 5 years?
Technology continues to advance at an increasingly rapid pace, with many industries now seemingly on the cusp of the next big leap. The near future thus brings questions of how the latest technological innovations, such as AI, Web3 and blockchain, could be embraced.
With industries such as Healthcare, however, where innovation is equally rife but adoption is lagging due typically to a number of practical constraints, leaders have a unique challenge. The role requires pragmatism and clarity, as well as ambition and foresight to target achievable yet significant and exciting transformation.
The needs of the user are key. For large cash-poor healthcare organisations, achieving modern infrastructure and highly usable software solutions for clinicians on a limited budget may be the objective. For individual patients, the challenges may be to proliferate solutions that enable new ways of interacting with your own health data, and delivering actionable insights that help improve outcomes.
The technology leader working with public sector organisations, therefore, has a multi-dimensional challenge. Tackling this requires increasingly collaborative working with not only all levels of the public sector organisation (e.g. clinicians and managers at every level of a hospital) but also in different care settings and types of organisation across regions.
What skills do you think leaders of the future will need in order to thrive?
As technology evolves, so do the types of challenges and pace of change. To adapt, leaders will have to be flexible, and collaborative with the ability to listen, learn and change accordingly more crucial than ever. The dynamic of office versus home working is a typical example of how attitudes and preferences can quickly shift and create a division in the workforce. Very little can be taken for granted any longer and leaders have to help shape a way forward that works for all of their people in order to thrive. In a world where information spreads fast, the softer skills are becoming increasingly important.
How do you keep current with new skills, technologies and personal development?
It is an unavoidable but accurate cliché to say that I am constantly learning at every moment of every day. My most common sources of educational content are social media, colleagues, books, conferences, talks and from talking to customers. These represent a great source of ideas, knowledge, lessons and news stories.
As a recent example, I have amassed a great deal of knowledge about regulations, processes and policy by working with some incredibly knowledgeable and experienced colleagues and partners and by diving into the detail of international standards. This has enabled me to quickly become well-versed in these areas and develop our capability across them extensively at Fortrus. I’m excited to continue learning and transferring the skills I acquire directly into both tangible and intangible benefits for the organisations I work with.
What do you see as the next leap in technology that will impact your business or industry in particular?
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are game-changing technologies, the effects of which are becoming increasingly more visible by the day. They have a direct impact on my role and serve as a differentiator in the sectors I operate in, particularly in healthcare and policing. Those teams that develop true AI-driven insight will have the potential to transform the way these industries work and the information available to support all levels of decision-making. It is an area I am especially excited about, as it has the potential to enable advancements that were previously reserved for science fiction.
“Work hard at discovering and embracing your true authentic self. Stay true to yourself to bring all of yourself to what you do.”
If you were mentoring a leader of the future, what advice or guidance would you give to help them on their way?
Work hard at discovering and embracing your true authentic self. Stay true to yourself to bring all of yourself to what you do. If you can find a way to do what you love and love what you do, then that will no doubt help enormously. Fostering environments where everyone is encouraged to do the same can only be a positive thing for you, your company and your mission.
Is there anything in particular that you would still like to achieve in your career or what is the next step on your journey?
The truth is that I feel like I am just getting started. There is an awful lot I would like to achieve, and it all revolves around making a genuine impact on people’s lives. I believe the outcomes we deliver at Fortrus make a real impact on the users of our solutions, but there is always more we can do. I believe by working together we can deliver solutions that genuinely transform healthcare outcomes. Whether it is population health, emergency departments, maternity care or anything else, I believe that continual innovation and the pushing of boundaries is required to get to where I know we could be. There are some exciting things we are working on that I won’t disclose here, but I believe could be the perfect next step to achieving this.
If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?
Global alignment on the priorities that matter. We live in an imperfect world, and while I would love my answer to be incredible outcomes such as ‘equality of opportunity’, I would hope that through meaningful collaboration we can make genuine progress in some of these issues. If we can find a way to all work together to tackle the biggest problems across healthcare, poverty, education, climate change and beyond, I think we could achieve something quite remarkable.
A big thank you to Zakariya Yahiya from Fortrus Ltd for sharing his journey to date.
