Cloud Industry Forum expands senior management team with a number of new appointments

The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) has appointed Dr Richard Sykes as its new Non Executive Chairman and Alex Hilton as its new Chief Executive Officer in a move that reflects the expansion of the organisation over the past couple of years.

Andy Burton, the founder of CIF, will transition responsibilities to Alex and Richard and will concentrate his focus on developing the organisational research and lobbying activity.

Andy Burton commented: “It has been a tremendous honour to have founded and overseen the development of CIF as Chairman since its formation in 2009. But the time is now right to expand the day-to-day operational management of the organisation to ensure that we are able to address the increasing scope of activities that we now embrace in order to better serve our members interests. These new appointments do in many respects demonstrate that CIF has become a mainstream establishment and a trusted voice for the cloud industry, and the management team needs to continue to drive our agenda forward. I will stay closely involved with the future growth and strategy of CIF but would like to take this opportunity to formally welcome Alex and Richard into their new roles as they drive the organisation’s agenda.

“Since formation, our goal has been to promote trust and to work within the sector by developing a public facing Code of Practice to standardise and certify enterprises offering cloud computing services. This objective has not changed, but our roles have. Today CIF has a growing membership base, a number of Special Interest Groups, a Governance Board, and a Certification process. This incredible growth – matched at the same time by a growing influence at the heart of Government both here in the UK and in Brussels – has meant that we have had to add to the existing management structure to enable us to continue the work we are already doing,” he added.

Dr Richard Sykes becomes the Chairman of the Cloud Industry Forum with immediate effect. He is best known as a businessman with a breadth of experience that spans the IT industry and the world of arts. He has held senior executive roles in a major global multinational and non-executive chairmanships in a number of smaller ventures. Richard also served on the board of Intellect for three years.

Richard has a particular expertise in the workings of the ICT Services and Business Process, sourcing and outsourcing market place - including 'the Cloud'. His focus here is in coaching the development and practical implementation of business strategies that will deliver quality, sustainable stakeholder returns in these very competitive markets.

“I am delighted to take on this new role at a time of heightened awareness and interest in the cloud computing model. Over the past few years the Cloud Industry Forum has been at the forefront of agenda setting in the industry and has led the charge for recognised standards within cloud provisioning,” stated Dr Richard Sykes.

Alex Hilton is well known in the IT industry with over 25 years’ experience in the sector. Alex becomes the new Chief Executive Officer for the Cloud Industry Forum, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the organisation in addition to his responsibilities as the Chief Executive of the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST), the sister organisation of CIF.

Alex commented: “The time is right for CIF to evolve and these organisational changes reflect the need to bring added depth and breadth to the day-to-day management of the organisation. This is a hugely important and positive step for CIF which will enable both it and its supporting Special Interest Groups, to drive forward the cloud agenda.”

He worked for 12 years at Microsoft where he ran the anti-piracy business and helped develop the now global best practise of Software Asset Management. Alex joined the compliance and inventory tools vendor Centennial Software in 2006 where he ran the worldwide sales operation, before their acquisition by FrontRange Solutions. For the last two years he has been Managing Director at the Cloud IaaS provider Rise (part of Fasthosts Internet).