Speaker Biographies

Chris Buss, Polym?tis

Chris has worked with e-skills UK (and formerly with the IT National Training Organisation) for 5 years following an 18 year career with a Fortune 500 US corporation developing businesses in over 20 countries in Europe and Asia/Pacific. 

A graduate in Greek and Latin at University College London his first job was the import/export of commercial vehicles, subsequently going into sales, marketing and product management of industrial chemicals and construction materials throughout the world.

Since 1997 he has worked with a number of organisations dedicated to the support and development of small/medium sized enterprises in the UK, and now runs his own consulting company operating mainly in the IT skills, small business and Social Enterprise sectors.

Terry Hook, e-skills UK

Terry is the e-skills IT sector lead and a project manager. He joined e-skills NTO in August 2000 following an extensive and varied career of over 32 years with IBM Global Services.

He was previously the Technical Education Manager for IBM in the United Kingdom, Holland, Ireland and South Africa. His mission was to enhance the technical skills of IBM?s staff and customers. Terry?s global service experience extends to executive management of IBM?s software and hardware technical centres where he was responsible for the support of a vast range of IT hardware and software applications.

A director and subsequently CEO of the former ITNTO, during the trade out period, Terry was also an active member of the former E-business NTO as chair of the Training and Education committee. He has extensive knowledge of change management in a corporate environment and was therefore well placed to support the integration of the two former National Training Organisations.

Terry is passionate about skills development and asserts that business success comes from the development of people not the acquisition of technology. He champions the value of skills frameworks and regularly provides consultancy, on behalf of e-skills UK, in the application of Sfia to the workplace.  

Alan Rae, Technology Means Business

Alan Rae operates on the frontier between marketing and technology. His experience spans engineering, IT and consultancy with a focus on developing and marketing new products and services. He is a serial entrepreneur who did a stint as a Ukonline for Business adviser. He currently carries out research, develops content and runs workshops for clients like the DTI, Universities and IT vendors such as Hewlett Packard. He is good at presenting current management thinking from the owner-manager's point of view.

Colin Shanley, FNX

Colin Shanley has more than twenty years' experience at the leading edge of electronic business and was one of the original architects of e-business in the UK.  Since then he has served as an officer of several international companies and in 1999 he became one of the UK's first appointments as Chief Privacy Officer, for Trustmarque International.  Colin is co-founder and senior partner of compliancy specialists FNX (pronounced "phoenix"), helping web sites meet with legal requirements in data protection and in ensuring they are accessible to those with disabilities.

Terry Watts, e-skills UK

During a career spanning 18 years in the IT Sector Terry has worked within an IT department, in Technical sales, as a consultant to the industry, and as a customer/IT Director both in large and small companies.

Currently Chief Operations Officer for e-skills UK, Terry is responsible for delivery of the Company?s strategic plan as well as operational aspects of the business.

Before joining e-skills, Terry was the VP Customer Services at OGCX Ltd, a start-up company offering Information and Financial Services to the perishable commodities sector.  Prior to this, Terry was Head of Practices and Operations Manager in a leading London Management Consultancy, ITIM, where over 3 years he developed the Technology Practice as a mainstream part of the business. Prior to ITIM, Terry spent 14 years as a Senior Business Development/Marketing Manager in IBM.

Last modified: 06 Jul 2007