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Tom Povey

Tom joined DEC after a career in computing and standards work. He contributed to DEC’s all-in-one version 2 and DEC Forms, a layered product that became DEC’s fastest-selling product. He later co-founded a company to improve VT100 software.

6 May 2025

Dr. Mike Burrows

After studying for a PhD in electrical engineering, Mike was offered a job at DEC’s Systems Research Centre in Palo Alto. There he worked on the Alta Vista search engine, which became the most popular search engine in the 1990s. After DEC, Mike moved on to jobs at Microsoft and Google, where he developed a distributed lock server, still in use today

29 April 2025

Tim Gregory

Tim Gregory has enjoyed a 50-year IT career during which he has witnessed the evolution of computing from punch cards and mainframes to AI and quantum today. Starting out in 1968 as a 15-year-old trainee computer operator, Tim went on to have a varied career managing complex IT operations for the likes of Sherwood Computer Services, Lloyd’s of London and BACS, before leading CGI’s operations in the UK and Europe.

23 April 2025

Trudy Norris-Grey

Trudy trained as an accountant, working for Vodafone predecessor Racal, and then DEC as a financial analyst. She worked her way up to become DEC’s first female board member. She moved on to Kodak and then became Vice President at Oracle. She became the first female leader of a major tech company in the UK in 2005 when she headed Sun Microsystems UK.

15 April 2025

Simone Hume

Simone started work at DEC as a temp, and taking advantage of their DigiTemps programme, got a permanent job in bid support and assisted consultants with proposals for Multi–Vendor Customer Services. She moved on to Base Sales, upselling additional services to existing customers, and then Field Sales around the time of the Compaq takeover. After DEC she moved to IBM as a Partner Account Manager for the public sector.

14 April 2025

Shaheed Haque

Shaheed joined DEC straight from university, and worked as an Engineer, contributing to the development of the 50-way sync connector and other innovative technologies, including inventing a graphic editor for state machines. His ground-breaking work on video servers saw Shaheed and his team move to Oracle where they worked on tech for companies who wanted to start using satellites to do shopping on televisions.

8 April 2025

Richard Briggs

Richard started off working with computers in Air Traffic Control, moving to DEC as an engineer. As his career progressed, he specialised in networks and moved over to telecoms, his work in ADSL laying the groundwork for future broadband infrastructure.

7 April 2025

Peter Campbell Burns

Peter worked as a computer programmer for University College London, in the Department of Physics and Astronomy’s high-profile experiments in collaboration with the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN). His knowledge of DEC machines and VAX/VMS (Virtual Memory Systems) meant he went on to become a Defence contractor.

7 April 2025

Ken Senior

Ken began his IT career as an electronics technician for the Navy, and after he left, joined Honeywell where he worked on the first computers taking commands from a keyboard. His next job was at DEC as a Field Engineer, becoming the first European Field Service manager in 1965. he worked up the ranks at DEC to Secretary to the Executive Board at DEC, working closely with founder Ken Olsen.

4 April 2025

Ken Salmon

Ken was recruited by DEC from Essex University, who trained students using DEC computers. He started in the Computer Special Systems Division working as a Project Engineer in logic design. His first job was to design a tape drive from scratch. As his career progressed he wanted to work in Sales rather than Management, so moved to a computer printing company.

1 April 2025

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