What does your job entail?
Executing the business plan and helping the IT strategy shape the business strategy.
What was your first job?
A paper round, but I also washed dishes in a restaurant (and all I got for Christmas was a lump of coal, blah blah blah...)

How did you get into IT?
I did an IT degree and then joined LogicaCMG. Logica was full of great people so all us smartarse graduates found out very quickly that we had a lot to learn.

If you weren’t in IT, what would you be doing?
Maybe a children’s book author. I recently had a book accepted by a publisher only for it to fail the focus group test. I guess the world will have to wait a bit longer for The Adventures of Pirate Zach (ahem).

What is the first web site you check in the morning?
www.chickendinner.co.uk always has something interesting to say.

Do you use a BlackBerry?
Yes. If they added proper MP3 functionality it would never be out of my hand. I recently saw someone use one at a urinal. I’m bad, but I’m not quite that bad.

What is the most ridiculous support request you have heard?
One of the team said that a customer had asked him to help buy a flat in London.

Which person do you most admire in the IT industry?
Martin Cox from DHL is a great role model of the “high EQ” [emotional intelligence quotient] CIO.

What has been the most over-hyped technology in the past five years?
You can’t buy service-oriented architecture (SOA), and it won’t save you money or increase your efficiency.

What keeps you awake?
All security breach stories really scare me.

Is now a good time for people to enter the UK IT profession?
There has never been a better time. We have cheap processing and high bandwidth, so good ideas can get attention really quickly now.