Member Article

Bob Paton rejoins Dynamo board

ONE of the region’s most respected businessmen has rejoined the board of the IT industry network he helped found.

Bob Paton CBE, who retired as Managing Director of Accenture’s Newcastle Delivery Centre earlier this year, co-founded Dynamo with Chair Charlie Hoult in 2013.

However, he stepped down from his position as Vice Chair when he was appointed interim Chief Executive of the North East LEP last spring.

Bob is now one of four Dynamo Vice Chairs – the others being Giselle Stewart, interactive entertainment leader at Ubisoft; Neil Hemming, Managing Director of SAP (UK) and Stuart Lynn, European CTO of Sage.

Bob is delighted to be rejoining the board of an organisation that he believes has an important role to play both within the IT sector and in the wider regional economy.

“Dynamo plays a big role in the regional IT sector and therefore the wider economy too – an illustration of how important the IT sector is that there are more jobs locally in the sector than there are at Nissan and within the Nissan supply chain, so it clearly plays a vital role in the local economy,” he said.

“Dynamo does three things to benefit the sector. First of all we encourage, help and promote collaboration within the sector and with others from outside the IT sector. Our work on the £30m National Institute for Smart Data Innovation (NISI) with Newcastle University, Newcastle City Council and others shows what we can do.

“The second area where we can really help is with the skills agenda. We work with schools, colleges and universities to ensure the right skills are being taught for jobs in the regional sector. We’ve helped build curriculum and we also launched the UK’s first IT Apprentice Hub to help plug the IT skills gap. The hub now has bases in Sunderland and Newcastle and more than 60 young people have been through the programme in just over a year.

“What we have is a ‘playground to PHD’ approach in which we have a strategy and a plan to promote and encourage IT skills being taught to young people at every stage of their education.

“We know there are plenty of job vacancies in local IT companies and we’ll continue to work to help young people into these jobs.

“And lastly we help identify and develop opportunities for individual companies and the sector as a whole. Dynamo is a well-connected, nimble organisation which has the experience and flexibility to react to opportunities as they arise.

“Promoting the sector, spreading the word, supporting collaboration and innovation and supporting the skills agenda – that’s what we do.”

Bob explained how Dynamo was originally set up: “Charlie and I were both out there, spreading the same message – trying to educate the business community about the importance of ensuring young people had the skills for the job opportunities within the region’s growing IT sector.

“Because of my corporate background with Accenture, I was working with big corporations downwards and Charlie was working upwards from small to medium-sized businesses and unsurprisingly we met up. We agreed to pool our resources and we’ve gone from strength to strength ever since,” explained Bob.

A former civil servant, Bob joined Accenture in 1992 and after 2010 was responsible for the launch and expansion of the firm’s Newcastle centre where the headcount grew to 650. Last year he won the Outstanding Contribution to the Profession accolade at the UK IT Industry Awards, and was given a CBE for his contribution to skills and apprenticeships in the region.

Since his retirement, he has been running Hexhamshire Organics, an organically-certified smallholding he runs with his wife Ann from their home near Hexham.

Charlie Hoult said he was delighted to welcome Bob back on to the Dynamo board: “His passion, enthusiasm, knowledge and contacts are a huge asset to the organisation and it’s great to have him back.

“He has been instrumental in helping to prepare the next and future generations for careers in one of the region’s fastest growing and most exciting sectors.”

Dynamo is made up of IT organisations and employers, technology hubs, universities, colleges and local government. It works to grow the region’s IT economy through promoting the region as a hub for the enterprise IT sector and has a mission to increase collaboration, innovation, skills and ‘noise’ to grow the region’s IT economy.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Dynamites IT Awards .