CIO Forum: Where are the tech heroes?

Attendees at the inaugural silicon.com CIO Forum event in London spoke out about their concerns for a lack of role models attracting fresh talent into the UK IT industry.

Rene Carayol, former CIO of IPC Media and silicon.com columnist, said: "We are looking at a talent outflux not an influx."

Carayol said many youngsters "are opting for jobs in finance over IT and I can't think of a more damning indictment on the state of the IT industry".

Carayol shared with the audience of CIOs, IT professionals, press and analysts his concerns about a lack of "spark" in the industry and an absence of the big names, such as those in the US, whio make people sit up and take note and continue to make technology an attractive career - if only because aspiring techies may covet those business leaders' well-publicised fortunes.

"Where's the Scott McNealy, where's the Larry Ellison, where's the Bill Gates?" asked Carayol.

He added that the success of the IT industry hinges on getting the right people in and currently an absence of such visible and recognisable figureheads in the UK IT industry is holding it back.

"IT is not about process, protocol or procedure, it's about people," said Carayol. "We're not attracting the best talent."

Carayol's comments brought agreement from the crowd with many saying that while the UK has innovative users of technology within business - Stelios Haji-Ioannou and Richard Branson were cited by many - there are still too few role models actually within the tech sector.

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