VSJ – June 2002 – Members’ News

New Fellows

We are pleased to welcome four new Fellows who have been admitted to the Institution since the beginning of 2002.

Samuel Adesanya MSc

Although Sam started his career as a programmer over 20 years ago in Nigeria, for the last 15 years he has been working in London. Most of that time was spent in senior positions with the London Boroughs of Southwark and Islington. He is a very experienced Lead Software Systems Engineer, used to delivering bespoke software applications in quality-controlled environments. He has extensive knowledge of database applications on Mainframe, Mini and PC-based development platforms. In the last three years he has forsaken local government to become a consultant with ICL, covering varied assignments both in-house and for outside clients.

Robin Evans BA MSc

Employed by ICL for 20 years, Robin joined them in 1972 as a Consultant Programmer (later Project Manager) with Dataskill, where he remained for 9 years. He later migrated to a number of different ICL departments. With ICL Defence Systems he notably led the team that developed OPCON, at the time the most advanced naval system in the world, his personal specialities being graphics and security. A complete change of direction came in 1988 when he became involved in ICL’s research into Human/Computer Interaction. This involved evaluation of the usability of a huge range of software, including Mac-based products. In the last ten years, after leaving ICL, Robin has worked on a number of consulting assignments, mainly for the major life insurance/mortgage providers.

Ross Fletcher

Ross has spent almost his entire professional career, more than 30 years, in the electricity industry, specifically with Midlands Electricity. During that period he has covered a huge range of assignments. In the 70s his work mainly concerned development of systems to facilitate billing, payroll, appliance sales and repairs, using real-time database updating. The 80s saw a shift towards engineering applications; later leading to the post of Information Centre Manager, where he has since masterminded a huge expansion in the company’s PC based applications. Taking voluntary retirement from Midlands Electricity last year at the age of 50, Ross is now looking forward to a new career as a freelance consultant. He is currently on assignment with a storage management company.

Paul Wallis BSc (Hons)

Paul has spent most of his working life with BP. As Systems Manager at BP Chemicals (1991 to 1997) he introduced systems which gathered 50,000 items of data every 15 seconds, and saved the company £1,000/hour. As Business Information Manager at BP Grangemouth (from 1997) his responsibilities included management of the outsourcing of IT to third parties, with a budget of £7.2 million, and installing networks to support a common operating environment within BP (£7.5 million). Over the period information management techniques increased profitability at Grangemouth by over £30 million. BP’s Grangemouth systems were used as a worldwide co-ordinating resource, and Paul worked in the USA, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines. He finally left BP in 2000 to start his own consultancy, but is now trying to raise a large amount of money to fund a major enterprise software initiative. We wish him luck.

Two Members have also been upgraded to Fellow:

Charles Shoniregun BSc (Hons) MSc

In a professional career stretching back over 20 years, Charles has combined the role of IT consultant in the telecommunications industry with that of university lecturer. Joining BT in 1988, he first worked on the Service Centre Project, installing, testing and modifying programs and co-ordinating hardware and software installed at four locations. Moving on in 1990, he took a key role in BT’s Operations Management Project, in relation to design of the mainframe-based network and Telecom satellite. Since 1997 he has been a visiting lecturer in IT at the New VIC College, London, the University of Westminster and the South Bank University. Since 1994 he has been a consultant with Futurelite of London.

Jacintha Sri Padmanathan

Jacintha began her IT career as a Clipper programmer some 12 years ago in Sri Lanka, working initially for a number of smaller companies. However, in 1994 she became Systems Support Manager with Mobitel Pvt, immediately assuming major responsibilities. These included setting up the IT department and preparing budgets, training staff, design of software using Gupta OO programming and programming in Informix 4GL. Moving on in 1997 Jacintha became Computer Project Leader for Oman Aviation Services. This involved the design of systems and management of multiple projects: fares, sales, invoicing, cargo tracking. It was her job to steer the company’s IT systems through the millennium. Jacintha is currently the Head of IT for the Lankabell Telecommunications Company.

Don’t forget to email eo@iap.org.uk with items of news about you or your company.

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