Alex Denley

Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK

An experienced IT director with a proven track record in multiple sectors, Alex offers high-level management skills and the the technical support to build business performance and seamless service management. Before his role at London South Bank University, Alex worked as head of information technology at Beaverbrooks and KidZania London.

How do you ensure diversity is taken into account in your IT recruitment?

To assist with including diversity within our IT recruitment we deliberately anonymise all applications during the selection stage. This means the hiring manager purely has the experience of the candidate to shortlist, rather than potentially excluding someone via an unintentional pre-cast judgement. This really helps having a completely diverse workforce.

Which technology are you currently most excited by?

I am a huge fan of robotic process automation. I feel that there are countless use case scenarios in any organisation where this automation software could add value. Even the other day I saw a process within my own institution that was many years old, overly complex, jumped around different systems and was actively in use. We cannot always decommission the 'technical debt' over night; however, we can be smarter in the way we operate.

What makes you laugh?

Despite having worked my way up to a senior leadership role, I still get phone calls from family and friends when their home printers jam or pc crashes. I can still get my hands dirty with desktop skills after all these years!

How did you get into IT?

I was always fascinated by technology and was fortunate enough to land an early role in my career on a first line service desk for a major bank. I had to learn on the job and was surrounded by some excellent people, which meant I picked up skills quickly. From here, I was lucky enough to accelerate up the ladder quickly and had opportunities to explore all the different areas tech covered in a large department.