1980s Archives - Archives of IT

Keith Saunders

Keith started his tech career as an Apprentice at the Atomic Energy Authority at Harwell, getting his first job at DEC where he was and engineer in the Computer Special Systems department. His experience building service teams at DEC meant he moved on to computer company Alliant and telecommunications form Alcatel, heading up global services.

9 May 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

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

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