The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, also known as the Information Technologists' Company, is one of the livery companies of the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

. 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 year of office). The Co ...

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 the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology syste ...

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, and was bought largely thanks to the generosity of

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 ...

and others. 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. He is a Professorial Fellow of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and a profes ...

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 Bob Kahn. He has received honorary degrees and awards that include ...

Sherry Coutu Sherry Coutu CBE (born 1964) is a serial entrepreneur, former CEO, angel investor and non-executive director based in Cambridge, UK and originally from Canada. Career Coutu graduated from University of British Columbia, with a first class hon ...

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

, Tom Ilube, Mike Lynch, Ken Olisa,

David Wootton Sir David Hugh Wootton (born 21 July 1950) is an English lawyer and politician. He was the 684th Lord Mayor of London, from 2011 to 2012, and is the Alderman of the Ward of Langbourn. Early life Wootton was educated at Bradford Grammar Schoo ...

CH and several past Presidents of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, including Dame Stephanie. The company ranks 100th in the

order of precedence An order of precedence is a sequential hierarchy of nominal importance and can be applied to individuals, groups, or organizations. Most often it is used in the context of people by many organizations and governments, for very formal and state o ...

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 a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

, 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 "Charte ...

, Actuaries,

Arbitrators An arbitral tribunal or arbitration tribunal, also arbitration commission, arbitration committee or arbitration council is a panel of unbiased adjudicators which is convened and sits to resolve a dispute by way of arbitration. The tribunal may con ...

, International Bankers, 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 hedge ...

Solicitors A solicitor is a legal practitioner 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 ...

, Management Consultants, 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. The company has a number of panels through which activities are organised. It is probably unique amongst Livery Companies in having an Ethical and Spiritual Development Panel, which considers such topics as the ethical and spiritual implications of the Internet – running colloquia on that topic in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

as far back as 1997.

Working with charities

Getting the maximum benefit from IT is now a pre-requisite, not just for commercial organisations but also for the charity sector. 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 give their time and expertise to 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 thanks to the work of the dedicated volunteer IT professionals.

Education

For hundreds of years, livery companies have supported schools in London and across the United Kingdom. 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, England. History The school is named after Lilian Baylis (1874–1937), a theatrical producer and manager who lived nearby in ...

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area e ...

. Previous projects include HOLNET (the History of London on the Internet), which is now incorporated into the London Grid for Learning. In 2011, together with the

Worshipful Company of Mercers The Worshipful Company of Mercers is the premier Livery Company of the City of London and ranks first in the order of precedence of the Companies. It is the first of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies. Although of even older origin, the c ...

(the premier livery company), they opened Hammersmith Academy.

IT profession

With members coming from all sectors of the IT field, the company can provide a neutral meeting ground for discussion of issues that are central to both the profession and the City of London. It also 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 or R SIGS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield commun ...

, the Joint Forces Cyber Group and HMS Collingwood. It is also affiliated with 46F (Kensington) Squadron, Air Training Corps, and Beckenham and Penge

Sea Cadets Sea cadets are members of a sea cadet corps, a formal uniformed youth organisation 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 a naval s ...

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