Prof Rick Chandler

Rick has 35+ years of experience at board level, in global companies in the Telecommunications, Pharmaceutical, Retail, Transport, Health, Aerospace and Government sectors. Motivated by separating marketing hype from reality he has delivered inspirational solutions through several generations of the Internet. (and before)
At Marconi he led Aerospace design/manufacture activities in Satellite, Missile and Underwater Weapon contracts. He was the youngest production representative on the MOD development board for Air drop Torpedo and did the final system test of the Linesman Radar Data processing system (Including “The red Button”).
Having run computer - based Aerospace contracts He moved into the computer industry with roles in Local and National Government, Pharma and PC retail.
In the early 80’s he set up a department in Aramco (Saudi Arabia) introducing PC’s to their Mainframe based infrastructure and reducing a population of over 30 PC types to 4 (DEC, IBM Apple and Wang). This included a personal Apple Lisa which gave him a lot of faith in graphics interfaces. All departments requiring PC technology had to have their needs assessed before the budget was approved. They accepted and installed over 10,000 PC.s in over 50 operational applications.
On return to UK he became Product Director of First Computer the UK’s largest PC Retail chain on a board chaired by Gerald Ronson and CEO Cyril Spencer of the Burton group. In this context he introduced Apple Macintosh to the Business product range and sold the first Mac in the UK. He gave the keynote at the first conference on Mobile Computing (Gary Kildall and Bill Gates were supporting speakers).
In the early 1990’s he took a contract as Systems Integration Manager at Berkshire County Council where he ran projects connecting all their digital assets from the mainframes out to the PCs in Fire Stations, Schools and Libraries. This was one of the first all TCP/IP networks in the public sector.
In the mid 1990’s he led the messaging team for SmithKline Beecham rolling out email and other services across their Global Data network. (Voice, eCommerce and Data)
His BT career started in 2000 with him leading the team that built the Genie platform which was de-merged to become O2. This was the world’s first 3G network and was deployed in UK and Hong Kong. Once O2 de-merged he took several other roles in the BT labs then, because of his Cyber Security expertise, was given a CTIO level role for 720 sites around the world.
He has a long career connecting “things” to a diverse range of secure networks from space to deep in the ocean. The Networks concerned have included Government, Commercial and Private and he has championed the certification and regulation of connected devices for many years. On that basis when he left BT in 2012 he set up his own IoT, Smart Cities consultancy. He was invited on UK Government initiatives to help technology collaboration with other countries (India, China).
He is currently an advisory professor at UCL School of Management working with Mentoring of Start-ups and with the UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering on smart technology to support an ageing population.

Appointments and Voluntary activities
He was elected to chair the first UK Electronic Business Forum (representing 1 million users including UK Government NHS etc.)
He sits on the BSI Committees for IoT, Digital Twin and e-Commerce. (with relevant input to ISO and European Standards bodies.
He currently Chairs the Communications Management Association a 66 -year-old organisation which represents Business Telecommunications Users and has in the past influenced and lobbied for industry and regulatory change. This position also gets him a seat at the Ofcom Stakeholders Group and INTUG (International Telecommunications User Group) and various related bodies (ITU OECD).
He was Treasurer and board member of EEMA a European ID and Security Association, from whom he received a lifetime Achievement award in 2018.
He has been a Judge of the World Communications Awards for several years which gives him a strong global view.
He is a STEM Ambassador working with the British International Educational Association (BIEA) judging their global competitions for 9-19 year olds.
He also mentors Startups in the Web3 / Blockchain world such as Accelerator “Blockchain Dojo” out of Plexal.
He received the BCS Ivinson Award and Medal in 2021 for exceptional volunteer activity.