The stories of the pioneering people behind IT

This expanding database contains more than 200 oral histories recorded by the Archives of IT team. They tell the extraordinary story of how the Tech industry has transformed our lives, in the words of the people who made and are making it happen.

You can filter interviews by subject area below or use the Search button at the top of the page. If you know who you are looking for, use our A-Z list here.

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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.

Professor Bill Dutton

Professor Bill Dutton is an eminent authority on the role and impact of information and communications technology in society. He was the first Director of the Oxford Internet Institute, founded in 2001, with support from Dame Stephanie Shirley, to focus on the societal opportunities and challenges of the rapidly developing technology.

His graduate studies were in Political Science, since when Bill has held roles with many institutions, notably at the University of Southern California and at Oxford with Balliol College and the Oxford Martin School. Bill was also Professor of Media and Information Policy at the Quello Center and Professor at the Annenberg School for Communications.

He combines expertise in ICT and human behaviour to illuminate the interplay of technology with issues such as security, democracy, (dis)information and response to the pandemic.

Mark Enzer OBE FREng

Mark Enzer OBE is a consultant engineer with experience in the water industry, universities, central government digital policy and the environment.  He is an advocate of systems thinking at a national level to tackle the multiple issues facing the built environment.  He is a visiting professor in the digitisation of the built environment at the University of Cambridge.  All his working life he has worked for the UK-based consultancy Mott Macdonald including five years as its chief technology officer.