Steve Capper moves to global CTO role at Aecom
Top-ranked CIO in Computing's 2014 IT Leaders 100 receives promotion to global role, shares secret of his success
Steve Capper, who topped Computing's IT Leaders 100 list in 2014, has been promoted to the Global CTO role at construction firm Aecom.
Last year's list, currently being updated for 2015, is available here.
Capper moves from his previous role as the CIO of the Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and India region to be the Global CTO of Aecom, a 100,000-person company.
Talking exclusively to Computing, he described the promotion as "A huge privilege, and I feel I have arrived in my dream role."
"The role is huge: being the CTO of a company that spans seven continents and 150 countries, with over 1,500 offices, is a fantastic challenge, as you can imagine."
He continued to discuss what he hopes to achieve in the new post.
"My goal is to continue the good work Todd Mazza, now CIO of the Americas, has done over the last few years with this fantastic team. Having just gone through one of the largest integrations of its kind in our industry [Aecom acquired rival construction firm URS Corporation in 2014] has not been without its challenges. I take over the role at an exciting time with many exciting projects in flight. My first priority is to keep the team focused and to champion the great work they are delivering.
"Having been in the leadership team led by Global CIO Tom Peck, I am already well aware of the many projects we have under way. This has allowed me to hit the ground much faster. Living in Dubai when the core of the team is in the US requires many late nights talking to them via video or teleconference. Hopefully once my visas are approved my family and I can move to LA," he said.
Capper explained that an important part of the job will be to examine the projects for which his teams are responsible, and look for opportunities to improve delivery timescales.
"My other top priority is to assess the timelines of our projects to see if we can re-prioritise and speed up the delivery. Continuing the drive to deliver improved support to the rest of the business and our clients will also be key. Other priorities will be to continue our vision to move to the Cloud, as well as to drive our relentless consolidation of systems and facilitate ease of access for our staff whilst maintaining strong security of all solutions, and, most importantly, our data.
"Then comes the second part of my role: looking at the future of technology and how it can be used as a competitive advantage to Aecom. We are already well down the track with virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), for example, aiding our Global Design Centres as we continue our 24/7 approach to design production. We are also leveraging many other technologies such as virtual reality to give our clients a truly immersive experience of their project before it is even built. As you can imagine for a company of this size spanning so many diverse sectors, we are looking at many other cutting edge technologies that others aren't even considering.
"The next chapter in my career is very exciting!" Capper added.
Capper has experienced a meteoric rise, starting off from the print room at engineering firm Arup, to one of the world's foremost CIOs. So what's his secret?
"Having worked my way up from the print room to director of IT at Arup - joining via Margaret Thatcher's Youth Training Scheme (YTS) and with no formal qualifications - I would say I have had to work hard and made many sacrifices to get to where I am today.
"The largest part of my success has been down to several key things:
- Having the opportunity to work with some very inspirational people throughout my career whom I can't thank enough
- Building a great team around you, it's not all about me, it's a team effort! Look after your people
- Applying common sense
- Putting in the hours
- Listening to people at all levels, I have been there, it takes all of us to make a world class team. Giving people your time is the most important thing you can do, making people feel comfortable so they can talk openly
- Pushing myself out of my comfort zone and encouraging others to do the same
- Most importantly, making decisions and standing by them, as well as empowering others to make decisions.