The networked society Archives - Page 9 of 9

Philip Hughes CBE

Philip Hughes CBE co-founded Logica with his business partner Len Taylor, the systems development company pioneered the use of minicomputers in commercial and government applications delivering complete “turnkey” systems of hardware and software. Logica’s first jobs were to manage the accounts and planning for a large architectural company; design the national vehicle and driving licence system; in1971 to design the con-trol system for the National Grid; and in 1973 to build the SWIFT network for the banks.

1 August 2017

John Carrington

John Carrington worked in the Post Office when it was a state-owned monopoly on first the postal side and then the telecommunications side. He was appointed as the founding managing director of Cellnet, BT’s mobile telecoms arm, in 1983. He helped European partners to develop the GSM standard which became and world de-facto standard. He moved to run BT’s US operations. He then had a variety of jobs in telecommunication including working for Cable and Wireless.

28 July 2017

Ninian Eadie

Ninian Eadie spent most of his career in the IT industry in ICL after working for LEO Computers and the Post Office. He saw the good times and the bad in ICL as it gained traction after he joined it in 1969. He ran ICL’s European business which, at its height, had about 7% of the Europe’s IT market outside the UK. He was in charge of successfully selling off many of the companies ICL disposed of as it shrank.

28 July 2017

Sir Peter Bonfield

Sir Peter Bonfield worked in the electronics component, computing and telecommunications sides of IT. He was invited in 1981 to become operations manager of ICL, the state-owned computer company rapidly running out of cash designing a new range of mainframes. In 1984 ICL was taken over by STC and Sir Peter became MD. In 1996 Sir Peter moved to BT and helped to lead it through a transformation from a utility company into a growth company

14 July 2017

John Leighfield CBE

John Leighfield CBE was a pioneering IT user, applying the technology offered by vendors to the benefit of users, particularly in manufacturing. He started in IT with Ford in Dagenham in what would now be called systems analysis. He joined Plessey in 1965 and was on the board of Plessey as the head of IT. John moved to British Leyland in 1972, working in BL Systems, later renamed as ISTEL. It was privatised and John and others succeeded in a management buyout.