The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, also known as the Information Technologists' Company, is one of the
livery companies
A livery company is a type of guild or professional association that originated in medieval times in London, England. Livery companies comprise London's ancient and modern trade associations and guilds, almost all of which are Style (form of a ...
of the
City of London
The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
. The company was granted livery status by the
Court of Aldermen
The Court of Aldermen forms part of the senior governance of the City of London Corporation. It comprises twenty-five Aldermen of the City of London, presided over by the Lord Mayor (becoming senior Alderman during his or her year of office). ...
on 7 January 1992, becoming the 100th livery company. It received its Royal Charter on 17 June 2010 from
Prince Edward.
Overview
The company has over 800 members – all currently or formerly senior practitioners in the
information technology
Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...
industry. The Information Technologists' Company is unusual for a 'modern' (post 1926) livery company in that it has its own hall.
[ The hall is located on Bartholomew Close, near to ]Barbican tube station
Barbican is a London Underground station situated near the Barbican Estate, on the edge of the Wards of the City of London, ward of Farringdon Within, City of London. It has been known by various names since its opening in 1865, mostly in refer ...
. Prominent members of the company include Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web, the HTML markup language, the URL system, and HTTP. He is a professorial research fellow a ...
, Vint Cerf
Vinton Gray Cerf (; born June 23, 1943) is an American Internet pioneer and is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-developer Robert Kahn.
He has received honorary degrees and awards that inclu ...
, Sherry Coutu
Sherry Coutu CBE (born 1964) is a Canadian-born entrepreneur, angel investor and non-executive director based in Cambridge, UK.
Career
Coutu graduated from University of British Columbia, with a first class honours BA, in 1986, with distincti ...
, Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...
, Tom Ilube
Thomas Segun Ilube ( ; born July 1963) is a British entrepreneur and educational philanthropist and former chair of the Rugby Football Union making him the first black chair of a major sport in England. He is the Chair of The King’s Trust in ...
, Mike Lynch, Ken Olisa
Sir Kenneth Aphunezi Olisa (born 13 October 1951) is a British businessman and philanthropist. He is the first black Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London. He founded and led the AIM-listed technology merchant bank Interregnum and now leads Restora ...
, David Wootton, Dame Stephanie Shirley
Dame Vera Stephanie "Steve" Shirley (previously Brook, née Buchthal; born 16 September 1933) is an information technology pioneer, businesswoman and philanthropist (naturalised British in 1951).
Early life
Shirley was born as Vera Buch ...
CH and several past Presidents of BCS
BCS may refer to:
American football
* Bowl Championship Series, a system that selected matchups for major college football bowl games between 1998 and 2013
* BCS conferences, the six FBS conferences with automatic major bowl bids under that sys ...
, The Chartered Institute for IT, including Dame Stephanie.order of precedence
An order of precedence is a sequential hierarchy of importance applied to individuals, groups, or organizations. For individuals, it is most often used for diplomats in attendance at very formal occasions. It can also be used in the context of ...
for the City livery companies. Its motto is ''Cito'', meaning 'swiftly' in Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
, a word which also incorporates the initials of the Company of Information Technologists.
The company is a member of the Financial Services Group of Livery Companies, the other twelve members of which are the Chartered Accountants, Chartered Surveyors
Chartered Surveyor is the description (protected by law in many countries) of Professional ''Members'' and ''Fellows'' of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) entitled to use the designation (and a number of variations such as "Chart ...
, Actuaries
An actuary is a professional with advanced mathematical skills who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require asset management, liability management, ...
, Arbitrators
An arbitral tribunal or arbitration tribunal, also arbitration commission, arbitration committee or arbitration council is a panel of adjudicators which is convened and sits to resolve a dispute by way of arbitration. The tribunal may consist of ...
, International Bankers
International finance (also referred to as international monetary economics or international macroeconomics) is the branch of monetary and macroeconomic interrelations between two or more countries. International finance examines the dynamics of ...
, Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, Insurers
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...
, Solicitors
A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...
, Management Consultants
Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...
, Marketors, Tax Advisers, and World Traders.
Activities
The company has a significant charitable and educational programme which uses the expertise, resources and networks of its members, and it is also involved in a range of activities to promote the information technology profession.
The four pillars of the company are charity, education, fellowship and industry.House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
as far back as 1997.
Working with charities
The company works with a wide range of non-profit organisations with the aim of helping them to gain the maximum benefit from their IT. Members provide pro-bono IT advice (usually at a strategic level). In addition, iT4Communities is the national IT volunteering programme, introducing volunteer IT professionals to charities needing IT help and support. iT4C was set up by the Worshipful Company in 2002 and since then has registered over 5,000 volunteers and more than 2,500 charities. iT4C has delivered over £3 million worth of support to the charity sector.
Education
Currently, the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists has a partnership with Lilian Baylis Technology School
Lilian Baylis Technology School (LBTS) is a secondary school for students from ages 11–19, in Kennington, London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the Un ...
in Lambeth
Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, which today also gives its name to the (much larger) London Borough of Lambeth. Lambeth itself was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey. It is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Charin ...
. Previous projects include HOLNET (the History of London on the Internet), which is now incorporated into the London Grid for Learning
The London Grid for Learning commonly referred to as LGfL is a British not for profit technology company with headquarters in central London. The charity founded in 2001 procures, develops and delivers technology and educational content includi ...
. In 2011, together with the Worshipful Company of Mercers
The Mercers' Company, or the Worshipful Company of Mercers, is a livery company of the City of London in the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, and ranks first in the order of precedence of the Companies. Mercer comes from the Latin for merch ...
(the premier livery company), they opened Hammersmith Academy
Hammersmith Academy is a non-denominational, all-ability, co-educational secondary academy for 11- to 18-year-olds specialising in creative and digital media and information technology, located in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, W ...
.
IT profession
The company runs a Journeyman Scheme which supports young IT professionals in the early stages of their career.
Support to the armed forces
The company is affiliated with the Royal Corps of Signals
The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communications an ...
, the Joint Forces Cyber Group and HMS Collingwood
Three ships and one shore establishment of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS ''Collingwood'', after Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood:
* , an 80-gun second-rate ship of the line, converted to screw propulsion in 1861, a ...
.
It is also affiliated with 46F (Kensington) Squadron, Air Training Corps
The Air Training Corps (ATC) is a British Youth organisations in the United Kingdom, volunteer youth organisation; aligned to, and fostering the knowledge and learning of military values, primarily focusing on military aviation. Part of the ...
, and Beckenham and Penge Sea Cadets
Sea cadets are members of a cadets youth program sponsored by a national naval service, aimed for young people with an interest in waterborne activities and or the national navy. The organisation may be sponsored in whole or in part by the navy or ...
.
List of recent Masters
Company chaplain
Father Marcus Walker
Arms
References
External links
Worshipful Company of Information Technologists website
Facebook page of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists
Twitter account of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists
{{authority control
1992 establishments in England
Computer science education in the United Kingdom
Information technology organisations based in the United Kingdom
Information Technologists
Organizations established in 1992
Charities based in London