Latest - Decades: 1990s

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.

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.

Sir Michael Brady

Sir Michael Brady is Emeritus Professor of Oncological Imaging at the University of Oxford, having retired in 2010 as Professor of Information Engineering.  He is co-Director of the Oxford Cancer Imaging Centre.  He is distinguished for his work in artificial intelligence, and for his outstanding contributions to developing computer-based post-processing for a variety of medical images.  He combines his work in oncology with a range of entrepreneurial activities.  He was Deputy Chairman of Oxford Instruments, and also a founder of successful start-ups such as Guidance, Mirada Medical, Optellum, Perspectum Diagnostics, ScreenPoint Medical, and Volpara Solutions among others.  Sir Michael was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and Fellow of the American Association of Artificial Intelligence, and also he is Membre Étranger de l’Académie des Sciences.  In addition to this numerous academic fellowships and prizes he received a knighthood in 2004 for services to engineering.

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.

Dr Stephen Castell

Dr Stephen Castell has worked in all four corners of the IT industry.  He was worked on the computing side and in telecommunications.   He has worked as a user implementing complex systems and as a vendor of information products and services.  He spent years advising UK venture capitalists on what were and what were not the best companies to invest in.  Finally he has spent decades as an expert witness in numerous legal disputes between vendors and users when the IT system supplied did not fit the expectations of the buyers.  This gives him a unique insight into the failures of IT.

Sir Peter Ogden

Sir Peter Ogden co-founded Computacenter in 1981, just at the right time: IBM launched the PC legitimising desktop computing and the use of dealers to sell the products. Computacenter focused initially on the financial sector which was Ogden’s background. It won an IBM dealership and was promoted by IBM as one of its chosen few dealers. The launch of Compaq IBM-compatible pcs turbo boosted the company’s growth. Unlike other companies in the IBM PC adverts of the 1980s, Computacenter not only survived but grew, using venture capital and then an IPO. Sir Peter likes forming companies and says when it needs an HR department it is time for him to leave. Computacenter expanded into France and Germany, which is now a larger market for it than the UK.