43. Rob Harding

Key points

Chief Operations and Technology Officer, CapitalOne (Europe)

What do you do with a first-class honours degree in physics from a good university? For Rob Harding, it took him into the electricity industry, with National Grid and East Midlands Electricity, before alighting at CapitalOne, where he worked his way up from Business Systems Analyst to CIO, appointed in July 2010. Today, Harding is leading the credit card business's digital transformation, as well as a member of the advisory boards of Horton Works and Fujitsu.