Advisors to the Board

Pierre Van Beneden

Vice President of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for Adobe Systems Inc 
As Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Vice President for Adobe Systems, Inc Mr Van Beneden is responsible for developing business opportunities, forging strategic alliances and increasing Adobe's customer focus in those territories.

Prior to joining Adobe, Mr Van Beneden served as president of Critical Path, the San Francisco-based consultancy and from 1995 to 2001, he was with Lotus Development Corporation where he was Executive Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations charged with leading Lotus's worldwide sales and service businesses, Vice President of Software Sales for the IBM Software Brands, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Lotus EMEA.

With Denis Ettighoffer, Mr Van Beneden has co-authored a book entitled ‘Mét@-Organisations’ and has spoken at the World Economic Forum about ‘The Role of Information Technology in Education’.

Graham Norton-Standen

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Applied Intelligence Group 
Mr Norton-Standen is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Applied Intelligence Group, which offers consulting services to organisations such as BT, Hewlett-Packard, Deutsche Bank, Reuters and ING.

Mr Norton-Standen has a formidable track record in senior management. As the former CEO of Gartner International, the leading provider of research and analysis on the global IT industry, he was responsible for all of that company's business outside of the USA. He has also been Chairman of the Internet Applications Group, President of the Strategic Growth Markets Group within Electronic Data Systems Corporation and Managing Director of its Communications and Media Division.

Peter Cochrane

Futurist and international business guru
Professor Cochrane has over forty years of hands-on technological and operational experience. Renowned for out-of-the-box thinking, he is sought after internationally as a consultant and has authored over six hundred articles and numerous books on the future, technology, business, management and living with rapid change.

As BT's Head of Research and CTO, Professor Cochrane led a thousand-strong team, whose studies spanned optical fibre, fixed and mobile networks, terminals and interfaces, artificial life and healthcare, eCommerce, eRetail, eLogistics and business modelling. His PhD research was pivotal in persuading BT to go all-digital and all-optical in the 1970s.

Professor Cochrane is a graduate of Nottingham Trent and Essex Universities. He received the Queen's Award for Innovation and Export in 1990 and was appointed to the UK’s first Professorial Chair for the Public Understanding of Science and Technology at the University of Bristol in 1998. He was awarded an OBE in 1999 for services to global telecommunications.