Park Place Technologies has launched The Savvy CIO, a podcast for IT leaders hosted by former Chief Information Officer Bradd Busick.

The first season focuses on the pressures facing senior technology executives as they manage ageing infrastructure, fixed budgets and rising demand tied to artificial intelligence.

Sponsored by Park Place, the series features conversations with IT executives and industry analysts from organisations including IBM, Coca-Cola Bottlers, Datum, Omdia, Solved and IDC. The opening season runs to 10 episodes.

Its editorial focus reflects a familiar tension in large organisations. Chief Information Officers are under pressure to keep existing systems running while deciding where to invest in modernisation, automation and data-intensive projects.

Topics include AI readiness, the practical challenges of liquid cooling in data centres, and the difficulty of getting more value from static IT budgets. Together, they point to an industry debate that has shifted from broad digital transformation language to questions of infrastructure limits, energy use and procurement discipline.

Busick, who currently serves as Principal, AI, Data & Technology Enablement at Frazier Healthcare Partners, brings a background in healthcare and operational technology. He previously served as Chief Information Officer at MultiCare Health System and was recognised as Washington State Healthcare CIO of the Year and National Healthcare CIO of the Year at the ORBIE Awards.

The launch adds to a broader stream of vendor-backed media aimed at senior technology buyers. Many suppliers and services groups now use podcasts and interview formats to reach Chief Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers making decisions on infrastructure life cycles, cloud spending, AI deployment and internal productivity.

Industry pressure

The programme is built around a hardening set of priorities in enterprise IT. Boards want returns from previous technology spending, finance teams want tighter discipline, and operating divisions increasingly expect AI tools and more responsive systems without matching budget increases.

That leaves technology leaders balancing competing demands. In many organisations, they must maintain ageing hardware and support contracts even as they are asked to shift funds towards data, automation and machine learning projects.

Infrastructure decisions have also become more visible at executive level because of the strain created by AI workloads. Questions about processing capacity, cooling, energy consumption and data architecture now sit alongside traditional concerns such as resilience, uptime and software support.

Busick framed the role in stark terms.

“In the old days, the CIO used to keep the lights on. Now the CIO decides which lights are worth keeping,” said Bradd Busick, Principal, AI, Data & Technology Enablement at Frazier Healthcare Partners.

He added: “This podcast features some of the top thought leaders in the world, where we don’t just talk about technology, we talk about leverage, speed and where the organisation is ‘lying to itself’ about its IT capabilities.”

Content strategy

For Park Place, the podcast offers a way to attach its brand to recurring discussions about infrastructure management and IT economics. The company operates in IT infrastructure services and reports annual revenue of USD $1.2 billion and 3,300 employees.

It says it serves more than 25,000 organisations across 180 countries, including half of the Fortune 500. Its business spans hardware maintenance, software technical support, hardware procurement and related infrastructure management services.

Park Place’s marketing leadership said the series was designed to address the less polished side of technology change programmes, where cost constraints and operational bottlenecks often slow executive plans.

“We realised many of the conversations being had focused entirely on the aspirational side of modernisation and did not actively address the ever-increasing hurdles CIOs face,” said Larry DeAngelis, Vice President of Marketing at Park Place Technologies.

He added: “We are hosting intelligent conversations to equip CIOs and CTOs with actionable insights to move their businesses forward.”

Shifting audience

The target audience extends beyond Chief Information Officers. The first season’s themes suggest the programme is aimed at a broader group of senior technology and operations leaders, including Chief Technology Officers, infrastructure heads and digital transformation executives.

That reflects a change in how enterprise technology purchasing decisions are made. Budget authority and strategic influence are often spread across finance, operations, security and product teams, making it harder for a single executive to shape technology direction alone.

The inclusion of analysts from firms such as IDC and Omdia also suggests an effort to combine practitioner experience with market interpretation. In vendor-backed editorial products, that mix can broaden relevance by linking frontline operational problems with wider industry patterns.

For listeners, the appeal may rest less on the existence of another business podcast and more on whether it can offer blunt assessments of the trade-offs senior IT leaders already face each day: whether to extend the life of existing assets, where to spend scarce budget, and how to avoid overstating readiness for AI projects before the underlying infrastructure is in place.

Daon has been selected by the British Council to provide identity verification services across its global testing and digital education portfolio. The agreement covers one of the world’s largest English-language testing programmes.

Daon’s TrustX platform will verify test takers at several stages of the testing process, including registration, attendance at test centres and checks during exams. The system will also support face-match re-verification after breaks and during re-tests.

British Council tests are accepted by governments in Australia, Canada and New Zealand and recognised by more than 12,500 organisations, including immigration authorities, employers and higher education institutions. Secure identity checks are important because test results can influence decisions on immigration, education and employment.

The British Council works with individuals in more than 200 countries and territories and has a presence in over 100 countries. In 2024-25, it said it reached 599 million people through its cultural relations and educational programmes.

Daon said the initial rollout would support millions of identity verification and facial authentication transactions over a multi-year term. The arrangement also leaves scope to extend the platform to other British Council services, including English Online.

Procurement process

The contract followed a multi-phase procurement process that required suppliers to meet standards for identity verification technology and services, including certification under the UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework. The tender also assessed global support, consultancy and operational practice, alongside biometric authentication and document validation.

Under the agreement, Daon will deploy its xProof identity verification tools on the TrustX platform. The setup includes document verification, facial comparison, liveness detection and chip reading, with manual review available when needed.

The British Council wanted identity checks that went beyond enrolment and covered the full user journey. That reflects broader pressure on testing providers to maintain confidence in remote and in-person assessment as fraud risks evolve.

Anthony Nicols outlined the British Council’s view of the role identity checks play in high-stakes exams.

“Identity is the cornerstone for high stakes exams, and in Daon we’ve found a partner that helps us embed trust throughout the entire testing journey,” said Anthony Nicols, Director of Product at the British Council. “This strengthens the integrity of our results while delivering a more secure and consistent experience for test takers globally.”

Wider use

For Daon, the British Council contract adds a public sector and education deployment with global reach. Organisations increasingly want identity verification to be part of an ongoing process rather than a single check at the start of a service.

Tom Grissen, Chief Executive Officer of Daon, said the project reflected a broader shift in how institutions handle digital identity.

“Organisations like the British Council operate at a scale where identity is more than just a security function,” said Tom Grissen, Chief Executive Officer of Daon. “It’s what underlines trust in the institution and the services it provides. This deployment reflects something we’re seeing across multiple sectors, where identity verification is becoming an ongoing, integrated part of the user journey rather than a single, static checkpoint. Platforms like TrustX are designed to enable organizations to orchestrate identity across channels, use cases, and geographies without adding friction for users.”

The British Council was founded in 1934 and is governed by Royal Charter. The scale of its operations and the international use of its tests mean identity verification decisions under this contract will affect a large volume of candidate transactions across multiple jurisdictions.

Thames Valley Police concluded its investigation into the fire on Buckingham Road, Bicester, on May 15, 2025, and handed it over to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to continue enquiries.

Firefighters Martyn Sadler, 38, and Jennie Logan, 30, and member of the public, Dave Chester, 57, sadly died after the fire at the business park which raged for hours, and two other firefighters were seriously injured.

L-R: Dave Chester, Martyn Sadler and Jennie Logan (Image: Family handouts)

Thames Valley Police concluded that, following a thorough investigation from the force’s major crime unit, alongside HSE, no referrals would be made to the Crown Prosecution Service to bring criminal charges relating to the tragic incident.

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Following the conclusion of the police investigation being released, Bicester Motion welcomed the progress in understanding what happened, and issued a short response.

Bicester Motion (Image: Ed Nix)

A spokesperson said: “Bicester Motion would like to acknowledge Thames Valley Police for its professionalism and diligence in conducting a thorough investigation following the tragic events of May 2025.

“As the investigation has now been formally handed over to the Health and Safety Executive and remains ongoing, Bicester Motion will not be providing further comment at this time.”

Thames Valley Police’s assistant chief constable Dennis Murray earlier confirmed the force is not seeking any prosecutions, and added: “Our thoughts will always be with the loved ones of Martyn Sadler, Jennie Logan and Dave Chester, as well as the injured firefighters.”