BCS, The UK’s Chartered Institute for IT has named Alastair Revell as its new President. Alastair has held senior volunteer roles in BCS for a decade and runs a successful professional services and IT consultancy firm.

He takes over from Gillian Arnold FBCS, who remains an active leader at BCS as Immediate Past President. Daljit Rehal FBCS, Chief Digital & Information Officer for HMRC, has been named as Deputy President.

Alastair said: “Ethics and professionalism in the development and use of technology are more important than ever in the wake of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal. I thank Gillian Arnold for her commitment to establishing these themes during her presidential year and I hope to continue that outstanding work.

“The value of professional registrations – especially Chartered status for technologists – is something I will strongly advocate for, with the support of Gillian, Daljit and the BCS executive team.” 

Alastair’s presidential year coincides with the 40th anniversary of BCS receiving its Royal Charter from HM Queen Elizabeth II.

Holly Porter, Managing Director (Institute) at BCS said: “The thanks of our membership community go to outgoing president Gillian Arnold FBCS for keeping ethics and the value of diversity at the forefront of the technology profession. Her contribution has made a significant impact.

“Gillian has championed the engagement of members and experts from our community in shaping our voice as well as influencing thought leadership. In addition to co-authoring our recently published Ethics Report she has also led knowledge sharing and education around equity, diversity and inclusion. We are delighted that she remains a key part of our senior governance team now her term is over and are grateful that we can continue to benefit from her guidance and expertise.”

“Alastair brings experience of information technology leadership at the highest levels and will be a powerful voice for BCS. He is an ardent advocate of Chartered professionalism and its role in providing independent standards of quality, assurance and trust in IT; and this is a key message he will be taking into an election year.”

More about Alastair Revell

Alastair Revell holds board appointments with other IT bodies, including the Institution of Analysts and Programmers and the Trustworthy Software Foundation, as well as being a trustee of the Engineering Council. He is a Chartered IT Professional (CITP), Chartered Engineer (CEng), Chartered Manager (CMgr) and a European Registered Engineer (EUR ING).and a Chartered Fellow (FBCS) of the Institute. 

He is the Chairman and Managing Consultant of Exeter-based Revell Research Systems, a management and technology consulting practice that he established in 1985. The firm provides advice and IT services to professional service firms and smaller corporates.

Alastair was the BCS Vice-President for Community for almost six years prior to his election as Deputy President in 2023. He has served on a variety of BCS governance committees since 2010, including Registrations and Standards. He worked with colleagues across the IT sector to establish the UK Cyber Security Council. He has also been an appointee of two UK Information Commissioners, advising them as part of a small panel on the technological opportunities and threats to privacy and data protection of UK citizens.

He is alumni of the University of Birmingham and holds an MBA from the University of Exeter. He is also a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and a Fellow of the Institution of Analysts and Programmers.

More about Daljit Rehal

Daljit Rehal is the Chief Digital & Information Officer for HMRC. He joined in Sept 2020 as CDIO for HMRC.   Daljit is responsible for all IT systems for HMRC and VOA. He is also responsible for the running of Live Services of critical systems for our customers.

Daljit is a member of Cross Government forum and is a subject matter expert in his field, he is a proven leader with experience in creating business value through Culture, People, Process and Technology. He has a particular passion for leading change, focused on customer outcomes. He has over 20 years of experience in exploiting a variety of enterprise technologies and managing vendor relationships and outsource partners to achieve business objectives.