Mike Bracken

“A globally minded visionary, transforming digital public infrastructure at scale”
Small portrait of Marina MazzucatoMariana Mazzucato
“By building a culture of public service in the technology sector, you have helped transform people’s attitudes toward government and service”
Small portrait of former US President Barack ObamaBarack Obama – President, USA
“If American government has been on a path of digital transformation over the past decade, it is due in no small part to Mike Bracken…he is truly where so much change for the better begins”
Small portrait of Jen PahlkaJen Pahlka – Founder US Digital Service, Code for America
Portrait of Mike Bracken, seated at a table, taken by Paul Clarke
Photograph by Paul Clarke

Biography

Mike Bracken CBE is a global digital leader who has led wholesale transformations of large institutions in the private and public sector. He helps organisations change their way of working and solve systemic market, societal and macroeconomic challenges. He is best known for leading the global revolution in digital government, taking the UK to #1 in the UN rankings in 2016.

Mike Bracken is a founding partner at Public Digital, a digital change consultancy for institutions with a public mission. He was the founder and executive director of the UK Government Digital Service (GDS) and the UK’s first Government Chief Data Officer.

Mike has led digital operations and transformations in large-scale organisations in the UK and Europe, such as Guardian News & Media and the Co-operative Group. A civic technologist who helped establish MySociety, Mike uses the power of the open Internet to drive systemic change.

He currently advises more than 30 governments and global financial institutions on digital transformation, from Canada and Australia to Argentina, and is currently one of President Macron’s Global Tech Thinkers. He is an honorary professor at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London. Mike is a partner at the Lisbon Council in Brussels and a Non-Executive Director at Chetwood Bank, a fully licensed UK fintech.

A graphic timeline illustrating Mike's appointments from 2003 to 2023. 2003 Trustee, MySociety. 2008 Director of Digital Development, Guardian News & Media. 2011 Executive Director Digital, Cabinet Office, UK Government. 2015 Chief Digital Officer, The Co-Operative Group. 2016 Founding Partner, Public Digital. 2018 Non-Executive Director, Lloyds of London. 2020 Non-Executive Director, Chetwood Bank. 2021 Visiting Professor, Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
A graphic timeline illustrating Mike's appointments from 2003 to 2023. 2003 Trustee, MySociety. 2008 Director of Digital Development, Guardian News & Media. 2011 Executive Director Digital, Cabinet Office, UK Government. 2015 Chief Digital Officer, The Co-Operative Group. 2016 Founding Partner, Public Digital. 2018 Non-Executive Director, Lloyds of London. 2020 Non-Executive Director, Chetwood Bank. 2021 Visiting Professor, Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

Talks

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Mike Bracken on innovating digital public services

Innovation Explorers podcast

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Radical Organisation Change: Architectural Innovation

Public Digital & IDEO launch

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The Jean Monnet Lecture

Build Teams and Show the Thing: Internet Era Public Sector Modernisation

Lisbon Council, Brussels

An image of Mike on stage with Tim O'Reilly with a play graphic superimposed

Redesign Government

Mike Bracken & Tim O’Reilly

An image of Mike on stage with a play graphic superimposed

Digital Government: The strategy is delivery

Institute for Government, London

An image of Mike on stage with a play graphic superimposed

Government as a Platform in the UK

Aspen Institute, Aspen Colorado

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Code for America

San Francisco, USA

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Delivering Government 2.0

The Wall Street Journal, Online

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From Publisher to Platform: the Guardian

Gartner Symposium, Florida

Quotes

“Mike Bracken is a living legend in the digital government circles”
Small portrait of Siim SikkuSiim Sikkut – Former Government CIO of Estonia
“The creation of Government Digital Service was one of the great unsung triumphs of the last Parliament”
Small portrait of former UK Prime Minister David CameronDavid Cameron – Prime Minister, United Kingdom

Writing by

No more ‘Big IT’: the failed 90s model has ruined too many lives

Financial Times

Cover of the book Digital Transformation at Scale

Digital Transformation at Scale: Why the strategy is delivery

London Publishing Partnership

  • 1st edition
  • 2nd edition
  • Japanese edition

New data institutions are the key to London’s growth

Evening Standard

Of the Web, not On the Web

GDS Blog

The Strategy is Delivery

GDS Blog

Writing about

Lessons from Effective Digital Leaders

Siim Sikkut

Digital Government Excellence: Lessons from Effective Digital Leaders

The sad tale of Britain’s Government Digital Service

The Economist

What’s Up with the British

Tim O'Reilly

LinkedIn

What HealthCare.gov could learn from Britain

John McDermott

Financial Times

Contact

Media enquiries:

PublicDigital@lexcomm.co.uk

+44 (0) 7498 395391

Non-Executive and Coaching:

digitalnonexec@mikebracken.com

Students, mid-career advice, or any Public Digital-related issues:

diane@public.digital