Gerry Penell
London Olympics 2012 - United Kingdom
CIO
In November 2008, Gerry Pennell joined LOCOG as CIO responsible for the management and delivery of all the IT and telecommunications required to stage the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Prior to this, he was CIO for the Cooperative Financial Services and the Cooperative Group – a GBP 9.5 billion turnover group of businesses covering banking, insurance and retail. Before this he was the Director of Technology for the 17th Commonwealth Games held in Manchester in 2002. The role required the establishment of the technology department, the selection of key suppliers and sponsors and direction of the delivery of the IT and telecommunications for the games.
Earlier, Gerry was a management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers where he established a track record in troubleshooting and delivering large time-critical programmes and projects (particularly several mergers and acquisitions programmes in a quickly consolidating financial services sector).
His career started in the development of mathematical models and real-time software for applications in anti-submarine warfare, gun and rocket artillery and for the Police. He then spent seven years with Barclays Bank, specialising in the planning and management of electronic banking systems.
He is a graduate in Mathematics from the University of Manchester, UK, and is currently a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
