What does your job entail?
In a nutshell, it’s advising on how to extract value and minimise risk from business technology trends. As a way of working, we believe that the business/IT divide is an unhelpful – if understandable – perception. People are just as much a part of the information systems as technology. So, we work to resolve the tension points between “business” and “IT”.

What was your first job?
PL/1 and Cobol CICS software developer at the Guardian Royal Exchange, now part of AXA.

How did you get into the IT profession?
I guess it started around the age of 10 when my parents bought me a Sinclair ZX81 and 16k RAM pack.

If you weren’t in IT, what would you be doing?
Philosophy, playing guitar with my blues band, and hanging around in beach bars – assuming my family were happy to move out of London.

Which IT qualifications or training courses have proved most useful to you?
There really hasn’t been one specific course, but learning from colleagues and developing skills through working with people, as opposed to machines, has been the most useful.

How often do you check your BlackBerry?
I don’t own one.

Which technology has had the biggest impact on your working life?
My gut reaction is the internet but if it hadn’t been for my first computer, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now. So the humble ZX81 gets my vote.

Which technologies do you rely on outside the office?
The mobile phone. You can’t beat ubiquitous mobile communications, in my opinion.

Is now a good time to enter the UK IT profession?
Yes, but there are some fundamental changes in terms of professional development. While computer science and engineering remain core professions, we need to look outside to other fields that can help inform how we might evolve the profession as a whole. For example, we might learn a lot from economists, especially given the shift towards the information economy and the global connectivity of information.