Credit Suisse has tapped a senior female engineer from Goldman Sachs to lead technology and operations strategy and join the firm’s leadership team.

Credit Suisse has appointed Joanne Hannaford as chief technology and operations officer and as a member of the group executive board, with effect from 1 January 2022.

Based in Zurich, Hannaford will be joining from Goldman Sachs, where she has spent 24 years in senior roles in London and New York across the investment bank’s engineering business, including co-head of enterprise platforms and global head of resiliency. She was named managing director in 2008 and partner in 2014, also serving on the board of the engineering executive group. Her most recent role was leading technology for EMEA and as global head of quality assurance engineering.

Hannaford has been behind several initiatives at GS to encourage women to enter into technology. One is the firm's partnership with the Code First: Girls campaign, which aimed to teach 20,000 young women to code by the end of 2020. She also oversaw the UK launch of its consumer savings platform Marcus.

Hannaford will report directly to group CEO Thomas Gottstein, replacing current CIO James Walker, who is moving to the US for family reasons to become deputy CEO of Credit Suisse Holdings (USA), the group said.

"Technology is and will increasingly be a key success factor in financial services and, with her skills, Joanne is well positioned to lead our strategic efforts going forward," Credit Suisse chairman Sir António Horta-Osório, said. Her specialist areas include semantic technologies, IT strategy, vendor management, and compliance management systems.

Hannaford began her career at Merrill Lynch after graduating with a first class bachelor of science degree from Staffordshire University. She was awarded the Professor Michaelson Award for outstanding research in computer science.

She serves on the UK Government Digital Service Advisory Board, chairs the Bank of England CIO Forum, and is a member of the Royal Society Science, Industry and Translation Committee. In 2020 she received the Women in Banking and Finance Award for Achievement.