Royal National Lifeboat Institution CIO talks COVID-19 response, data, and mental health

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has come a long way since its inception in 1824, but its core mission remains the same: to save lives at sea. Volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the coasts of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, where the non-profit operates some 238 lifeboat stations and 240 lifeguard units. Over its almost 200-year history, lifeboat crews and lifeguards are said to have saved over 140,000 lives.

RNLI/Nathan Williams

The charity’s CIO and strategy director, Claire Deuchar, is charting a long-term direction that goes beyond traditional IT cycles. She is restructuring her technology delivery team with strategy and data professionals able to look 30 years into the future, prioritising diversity, neurodiversity, and mental health in her IT department and looking to support volunteers experiencing economic hardship and political pressure.

An IT team looking to the future

Deuchar was appointed in 2018 as CIO, her first job as a senior IT executive after holding procurement and product roles in the energy and fast-moving consumer goods sectors. It’s been a choppy ride, however, with the global pandemic impacting the RNLI’s financial performance, volunteering support, and talent attraction and retention. Amid all of this, she has had to maintain the non-profit’s six objectives, according to its 2020-2024 strategy: