Modernising industry Archives - Page 5 of 7

Cyril Hilsum CBE

Cyril Hilsum is a British physicist and material scientist, who carried out research on infra-red devices and semi-conductors, and played a key role in the development of flat-panel liquid crystal displays. He was awarded numerous prizes from several institutions: he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and an honorary member of the American National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded the Max Born Prize in 1987 and the Faraday Medal in 1988. He was awarded the CBE in 1990 for services to the Electrical and Electronics Industry. In 2007 he was awarded the Royal Society’s Royal Medal for his many outstanding contributions and for continuing to use his prodigious talents on behalf of industry, government and academia to this day

2 April 2020

Beverly Clarke

Beverly Clarke is responsible for the local community of practice programme for the Computing at School initiative, sponsored by the BCS Chartered Institute for IT and the National Centre for Computing Education. She is passionate about computing education and the role of computing at school.

6 March 2020

Sir Desmond Pitcher

Sir Desmond Pitcher has worked on all sides of the IT industry. He has implemented computer systems for Sperry Univac and became a senior executive. In 1974/5 he delivered the Faraday lecture series for the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers in which he predicted many of the developments of the IT industry. He has run the computerised switching systems for the telecommunications company Plessey when it was developing and building System X. He has introduced computerisation in large organisations including Littlewoods, the football pools and retailing company based on Merseyside. He later chaired the Merseyside Development Corporation.

21 February 2020

Edwina Dunn OBE

Edwina Dunn OBE has spent her 40 years in the IT industry analysing great globs of data and turning it into useful business information to guide businesses. We call that today the analysis of big data. She started at the US CACI company which used census data to help customers such as banks and building societies. She left with her husband after nine years and they formed their own consultancy focusing on analysing customer data. Their big breakthrough was launching the Clubcard customer service for Tesco which catapulted Tesco to the front rank of UK grocery marketing. They sold the business to Tesco and formed another company. She is concerned about the ethics of using data and about the role of women in IT.

7 February 2020

Jo Connell OBE DL

Jo Connell OBE started her career as a programmer in the 1960s, and later joined Freelance Programmers, the iconic company founded by Dame Stephanie Shirley, progressing to be Group Managing Director of the successor, FTSE 250 company, Xansa. Since retiring from corporate life, Jo has pursued a portfolio of activities, mainly charitable and voluntary, relating to those in need, public service and the IT industry.

4 February 2020

Maurice Perks

Maurice Perks worked on the implementation of large complex IT systems from his start at IBM in 1968. He helped build one of Europe’s first interactive applications for Dunlop in the early 1970s. He worked in the USA on the design of future computer systems within the heart of IBM. He became a Fellow of IBM working on the implementation of applications for customers. He is concerned that there is a continuing gap between what the IT industry can deliver and what organisations, both private and public, need.

10 January 2020

Sarah Bond

Sarah Bond is an IT executive who helped invent unlimited data packages in the mobile phone industry before moving on to lead Microsoft’s gaming business development team.

2 January 2020

Peter Hermon

Peter Hermon joined LEO Computers after he obtained first class honours from St. John’s Oxford, and seeing an advertisement for a mathematician from J. Lyons & Co. He was one of the most brilliant LEO recruits and quickly made his mark as a programmer and consultant. He moved to BOAC where he was responsible for the development of BOADICEA the airline reservation system which became a major UK success story and later became a Director of British Airways.

19 December 2019

Lisa Goodchild

Lisa Goodchild’s experience in – and passion for – all things digital is unrivalled. For more than 20 years she has lived, loved and been a major player in the industry making waves in far-reaching arenas, from fashion, finance & tech to online advertising and non-profit.

Throughout her career, Lisa has brought excitement to her projects, making ‘it’ happen, with her agency social media consultancy Digiwoo, for the likes of Hewlett Packard, British Airways, Goldman Sachs, Panasonic & Ted Baker, & also in her capacity as an advisor to notable names such as PR guru Lynne Franks, June Sarpong MBE, Shaa Wasmund MBE & MOBO Awards founder Kanya King MBE. Lisa also mentors for Google & Virgin as well as being a Marketing Academy Alumni and a Marketing Academy Apprenticeship Charity Trustee.

5 December 2019

Pete Lomas

Pete Lomas and a colleague designed the Raspberry Pi educational computer to help turn young people from consumers into creators. The original plan in 2008 called for 3,000 units: there are now close to 30 million of these small and inexpensive used to educate young people into how to design digital systems of all types. Pete went further and turned Raspberry Pi into a charity with other industrialists and academics. Raspberry Pi came out of a long career in electronic engineering which included teaching and research at Manchester University and commercial work developing digital systems for clients.