Stephen Langley (x-Deputy CIO, SFC) – Differences between CIO / CTO / CDO

Stephen Langley was in a leadership role with IBM (London) in the past and after his move to Hong Kong, he became the deputy CIO of the Securities and Future Commission (SFC). He did that for close to 5 years before moving onto a different role within SFC. He now leads the Data Analytics team at SFC.

His Linked In profile summarizes his experience best: "Stephen Langley is a politically savvy IT executive with solid international experience of managing IT in complex environments across Europe and Asia, working in professional services and regulatory environments. He has a good understanding of HK environment and culture including current FinTech and cybersecurity challenges."

Today on the podcast, we're going to talk to him about a wide range of topics in technology so let me first of all welcome and thank Stephen for taking the time to do the podcast with us today.

"Stephen's background"

1. Please introduce yourself in your own words and say a few words about your background. Where are you from?

2. You've had many senior leadership roles in IT in your career, you were the CIO of PWC Consulting, then in the CIO Office IBM and then SFC. Was being in the CIO Office always your passion?

3. We have listeners are various levels so could you tell us what the different is between a Head of Technology, a CIO, CTO and CDO?

4. How did you rise to the level of becoming part of the senior leadership within technology?

5. In your opinion, what are the attributes of a good CIO?

6. After working as the CIO for PWC Consulting and then in a senior role with IBM, you moved to Hong Kong to become the Deputy CIO for SFC. How did that happen?

7. Would you describe your role as the Deputy CIO of SFC to be a political one? How important are political relationships and how does one go about cultivating them?

"Data Analytics, Cyberscecruity, Cryptocurrencies and Fintech"

1. What the move from being the Deputy CIO of SFC to starting a Data Analytics group within SFC?

2. What is Data Analytics and why is it important to SFC?

3. Other than data analytics, can you speak about cyber security? Would you describe that as another topic of interest for SFC?

4. What can firms do now to strengthen their cyber security?

5. Can you talk about FinTech in Hong Kong? How much of hype is there vs what's really happening?

6. When someone says "FinTech" to you what immediately comes to mind?

7. Can you talk about certain companies that come to mind immediately when you hear FinTech and Hong Kong?

8. We sometimes here of comparisons between Hong Kong and Singapore FinTech with some proclaiming that SG FinTech has a better vibe. What are your thoughts on this?

"Advice and personality"

1. What can techies do to learn and build their communication skills and networking skills?

2. In your opinion, how should today's computer science student prepare for work in the FinTech world of tomorrow?

3. What books do you read? Is there a pattern and what are some of the top books you'd recommend?

4. Has there been a key mentor or a significant person in your life so far that has enabled you to achieve the success you have had in your career?

5. Knowing what you know now, if you could travel back to when you were 20 years old, what advice would you give yourself?

6. Is there anything else you would like to say that we haven't asked you?