Richard Holway
PO Box 183
Farnham, Surrey, GU10 1QX
Tel: 01252 781545 Mobile: 07836 653440
e-mail:
2000 – Dec 06
Ovum plc (Rev. £20m+) Director
Chairman of Remuneration Committee/Member of Audit Committee
Became a director of Ovum when it purchased Richard Holway Limited in 2000. Following the sharp downturn in the technology sector, I was instrumental in undertaking several tough rounds of restructuring/cost-cutting, fund raising and an extensive remodelling of the business before growth returned to Ovum in 2004.
Ovum is now the largest European-owned technology research and advisory firm (and the 4th largest in the world after Gartner, IDC and Forrester) employing over 250 professional staff in offices in US, Europe and the Far East.
Ovum’s IPO onto AIM in March 2006 was several times oversubscribed - a measure of the success of the strategy.
I played a key role, as part of the Ovum board and a major shareholder in this challenging, but ultimately highly rewarding, period.
As Chairman of Ovum’s Remuneration Committee, I was responsible for the design of the various incentive and share ownership schemes for management and staff.
I have a continuing role as one of the top analysts and advisers in the UK covering the whole spectrum of TMT issues from new media, telecommunications, software and IT services. Recent personal advisory roles have included a study on the effects of global sourcing on the UK IT sector for the DTI and advising Connecting for Health (the NHS IT project) on the “health” of their suppliers.
Ovum was acquired by Datamonitor in Dec 06 for c£42m/300p – a considerable premium on the 190p IPO price just months earlier.
2001 – Current
BT Global Services (Rev. c£9 billion) Member of UK Advisory Board with particular current emphasis on BT’s role in large public sector IT contracts.
1999 – Current Member of the Advisory Board of this private equity
Elderstreet Capital Partners firm which specialises in new media/internet
investment.
2002 – Current
Prince’s Trust Founder, Patron and Chairman of Technology Leadership Group.
One of the founders of the Prince’s Trust Technology Leadership Group in 2002. Since then the group has raised over £4m to help disadvantaged young people to get a start in life. My presentations for the Prince’s Trust have raised considerable funds towards this total. My annual dinner, attended by almost every leading UK ICT leader in the UK, is always a sell-out.
2004 – Oct 06 Non executive director/Member of Audit and
Microgen plc (Rev c£40m) Remuneration committee.
Colin Barker, Editor, Computing 2nd March 2003.
”His views are not to be taken lightly - the man is something of a legend in the UK IT industry .For years he and his team have produced the leading analysis of the UK software and services sector. There is no equivalent of the Holway Report anywhere in the world. Many can compete with the mass of statistics that Holway produces, but few can compete with the knowledge and experience of Holway himself. It was Holway who correctly predicted (back in 1997) that the IT industry would catch a cold once the fuss over the millennium bug was over.”
Financial Times article on "the figures every senior executive needs to know" 3rd Dec 2002.
Richard Holway is the wise grey owl of the UK technology sector, which he has been involved in for 36 years, 16 of them as an influential, fiercely independent and highly-respected analyst. His deep and intricate knowledge of the technology industry allowed him to be one of the few analysts to recognise and describe the technology and internet boom of recent years for what it was: a crazy, passing fad.
1986 – 2000
Richard Holway Ltd Chairman and CEO.
Richard Holway Limited became the leading authority on the UK Software and IT Services sector. Its annual Holway Report, which tracked the financial performance of the sector and its constituent companies, was a best seller; bought each year by every leading player. In 1989 this spawned the monthly SYSTEMHOUSE newsletter and, in 1996, the first internet daily news bulletin for the sector.
I became the most quoted UK technology analyst in the media and my presentations were sell-outs attracting audiences of 500+.
Richard Holway Limited was sold to Ovum in 2000 in a combination of cash and shares – at the height of the dot.com boom.
In addition, in the period, I held various non executive Chairmanships and directorships of both public and private UK technology companies
1984 – 1986
Wootton Jeffreys plc CEO.
Tripled size of this 200 person IT services company in three years.
1968 – 1984
(now Capgemini UK) Worked up from Programmer to Group Marketing Director at a time when Hoskyns was the leading supplier of IT services in the UK.
1966 – 1968
Hospitals Computer Centre Programmer.
Education
Wellington School, Somerset To “A” Levels in 1965.