Sunderland City Council has appointed Naomi Hutchinson as Chief Innovation and Growth Officer to support Sunderland’s ambitions to become a leading smart city.
Hutchinson joins the council’s growing Smart City Programme team from Sunderland Software City, where she was Head of Innovation.
In her new role, she will be working with businesses, residents and visitors to help them to understand how to adapt to take advantage of next generation connectivity across the city, enabling them to embrace opportunities, compete and grow.
Sunderland City Council’s Smart City Plan is designed to connect people to places through social and digital transformation, in a bid to accelerate city-wide improvements.
In January, Sunderland City Council announced the deployment of a new Integrated Smart City Platform (ISCP) to enhance its services, provided by tech company Connexin.
Liz St Louis, Assistant Director of Smart Cities at Sunderland City Council, said: “It’s a great time for Naomi to be joining the organisation as she helps us to take on the next stage of our smart city’s growth journey. Further strengthening our team with Naomi’s proven capabilities represents not just a great opportunity for us as a team, but for the wider business community across the city who will undoubtedly benefit from her knowledge and expertise.”
Naomi Hutchinson added: “Sunderland City Council’s core ethos of leaving no one and nowhere behind really resonated with me, and as I delved deeper into the Council’s plans to build a leading smart city infrastructure, I could see clear opportunities for residents, visitors, local businesses and inward investors.
“Joining the Smart City Programme team felt like the perfect fit and the ideal way for me to play a central role in technology improving the lives of residents, catalysing the scaleup of so many businesses, large and small, across Sunderland.”
