At the tender age of 37, Rorie Devine became IS director of Betfair, Europe’s largest online betting exchange.
He found the job through a headhunter, who approached Devine while he was working as chief technology officer of NTL’s internet division.
Devine was a perfect candidate to become the CIO at an online company – the early years of his career were spent at Logica, working with investment banking clients, giving him a good understanding of international finance.
After that, Devine worked for an internet startup that provided web users with global information on property for sale.
Although the company in question, Rapidmove.com, eventually went bust – ‘it was an idea ahead of its time,’ he says – Devine learned a good deal about internet technologies, and the pressure that comes from running an online business that needs to be available 24 hours a day.
Although Devine was in a well-paid and interesting job with NTL when he was approached, he was persuaded to meet with Betfair to discuss the opportunity. Having met with the existing CIO – who was moving into the chief executive’s chair – Devine was keen to make the move.
‘I saw the potential for the business to expand and become a really big success – the scalability was very impressive,’ he says. ‘I also found the chief executive quite inspirational and the opportunity to work with him was extremely attractive.’
As an IT leader, Devine is now in the position of trying to persuade his own team not to succumb to the advances of headhunters.
He believes that the best way to keep IT high-flyers is to develop the very skills and attributes that make them attractive to recruiters.
‘I look for the ability to handle pressure, good breadth of sector experience, willingness to take on challenges – they’re all essential qualities for a CIO,’ he says.
To foster teamworking and loyalty, Devine also holds weekly workshops with the IT staff to talk about management, leadership and communication issues.
This is an opportunity for everyone to talk about issues, challenges and potential solutions.
‘We focus very much on developing leadership and team building skills,’ says Devine. ‘The idea is that we all help each other to develop.’
By continually developing skills, Devine believes that staff remain more loyal. ‘If you have an environment of learning and development, why would people want to go elsewhere?’ he says.
‘You have to develop people if you don’t want to lose them,’ he says. ‘It sounds trite, but in many organisations you only get feedback about what you do wrong.’
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