Dr Richard Sykes
Bloor Alumni
Richard worked for 27 years in international business management with the former global chemical major ICI plc, latterly (1993-1999) as its global Group VP IT. He then deepened his experience in the workings of the ITO/BPO markets as Chairman (1999-2004) of the outsourcing consultants Morgan Chambers plc (now, via its acquisition by Equaterra Inc, part of KPMG).
He went on to work as an independent (vendor neutral) strategic advisor, coach and assurer, articulating the powerful & competitive forces that are reshaping the business models of the ICT services vendor community. His particular focus was the transformation of classic outsourcing business models by new models based on direct sourcing of information technology & business process services, including through the agency of ‘the Cloud’. He worked with both corporate & government clients, and with ICT services vendor clients, in building sustainable and profitable business services & technology sourcing models.
Richard chaired the Cloud Industry Forum and was the (UK) Vice President of EuroCloud Europe. He wrote a monthly column/blog in the UK edition of CIO Magazine.
He has served on the board of Intellect (the UK trade association for the IT, Telecoms and Electronics industries – now re-launched as TechUK). He advised the UK Government’s ‘G-Cloud’ initiative 2009-2010.