Talking with Tech Leaders
Talking with... Tony McClelland, CIO of the ACCA
It’s always fun to consider how far computing has come, even in the space of one career. When Tony McClelland was getting started, programming was a skill you could learn with punch cards, industry ran on paper tapes and rendering cute cartoons involve a supercomputer and a sleeping bag.
Which is to say that Tony has some incredible experience. And he’s happy to share it in this episode of Talking with Tech Leaders. He talks about working on pan-European research before cheap air travel, shares stories of multi-million pound periscopes and shares some memories of Graham Technology – back in the days when they almost became a billion-pound firm and a Scottish Tech unicorn.
We touch on the culture that made Graham Technology (or Sword Ciboodle, as it was re-named) what it was, with another mention of the famous Golden Knob award – as mentioned by Adam Dallis in episode 10. Tony also tells us a similar story about one project that had a ‘Scapegoat of the Day’.
And we chat through his current role as CIO of the ACCA – what he calls the world’s smallest multinational, with 650 mostly based in Glasgow, and thousands of students and members right across the globe.
As ever, we also look behind the leader, getting to know what makes Tony tick, with a few searching questions on everything from book recommendations to dinner party guests.
It’s always fun to consider how far computing has come, even in the space of one career. When Tony McClelland was getting started, programming was a skill you could learn with punch cards, industry ran on paper tapes and rendering cute cartoons involve a supercomputer and a sleeping bag.
Which is to say that Tony has some incredible experience. And he’s happy to share it in this episode of Talking with Tech Leaders. He talks about working on pan-European research before cheap air travel, shares stories of multi-million pound periscopes and shares some memories of Graham Technology – back in the days when they almost became a billion-pound firm and a Scottish Tech unicorn.
We touch on the culture that made Graham Technology (or Sword Ciboodle, as it was re-named) what it was, with another mention of the famous Golden Knob award – as mentioned by Adam Dallis in episode 10. Tony also tells us a similar story about one project that had a ‘Scapegoat of the Day’.
And we chat through his current role as CIO of the ACCA – what he calls the world’s smallest multinational, with 650 mostly based in Glasgow, and thousands of students and members right across the globe.
As ever, we also look behind the leader, getting to know what makes Tony tick, with a few searching questions on everything from book recommendations to dinner party guests.