Rashik Parmar MBE FBCS, recently appointed CEO of BCS shares his vision for the organisation: as an inclusive place where IT professionals feel they belong; for IT to be good for society and for our organisation to keep growing in influence. And at the heart of all this, is membership.
“I’d like BCS to be seen as a role model – recognised world wide – as the institution that can help us create the IT that society needs: a much more sustainable IT, a more inclusive IT.”
Rashik Parmar is BCS’ new CEO. In a recent discussion with BCS President, Mayank Prakash and Director of Education, Julia Adamson, Rashik explores his past career, his present plans and his future goals for BCS and for the IT profession. You can watch the full video interview here. In the meantime, here are some highlights.
JA: Tell us a little more about you, as a person.
Firstly, I’m delighted to be here. I’m married, with two kids and live in Leeds. I’ve been at IBM for a long time – we won’t mention how many years. But, I’m delighted to be moving out of IBM into, what I think, is a fantastic opportunity.
MP: You’ve been associated with BCS for a long time. Tell us about that.
I joined BCS when I was at university – at Imperial College. I studied computer science. It was the done thing for every computer scientist in the class to become a BCS member. I didn’t know what I was letting myself in for. I got involved in some events on campus. We used to get the magazine – it was one of the great things. It really gave us the information about the industry... It was that window into the IT industry. Fast-forward, I was involved in many conferences and meetings over the years and... most recently I helped shape F-TAG. We try and understand the amazing value, knowledge and expertise that sits with the Fellows. How do we unlock that? How do we make it available as insights for our members? We’ve published eleven papers and I’d urge members to look them up.
JA: What opportunities do you see for BCS?
BCS has a reputation right around the world. I can remember when I was appointed as a Fellow. It was a moment of pride. It was something really important to me. As a society, we’ve got so many amazing people – we’re doing amazing things around mentorship, inspiring the next generation and helping to shape the debates about how IT can add real value for society. BCS has amazing potential and I am hoping, as the CEO, we can take that latent potential... we can unlock it and really make IT valuable to society and make a difference in the world.
MP: Technology is solving many of mankind’s biggest challenges. It’s helping us reimagine what we can achieve in healthcare, sustainability and using information positively. But, we’ve had information war, fake news and worries about privacy. These are big issues.
Absolutely right. BCS has a big role to play. The way I think about this is: IT, over the last 70 years, has been digitising aspects of human life and that digitisation has help to improve lives and it has created opportunities. It’s started to help make the world a better place for everybody.
At the same time, as we start to become dependant on that technology, it starts to become a vulnerable point. That’s where it becomes an attack point for cyber vectors. Part of our role is putting in place professionalism and ethics to make sure that what we build is good for society.
JA: I hear you were named as inclusion influencer of the year?
I’m very passionate about inclusion. We talk about diversity but, why do we care about it? IT is fundamental for everybody. Unless we have everybody represented in those projects that build technology, that technology isn’t going to serve everybody. With the best will in the world, a group of homogeneous individuals will not have the ability to be inclusive – they can try – but they won’t be. Inclusion is rooted deeply in the society and fundamental for our success in the future.
MP: It’s unthinkable that my daughter wouldn’t have the same opportunities as a boy her age. It’s fundamental that we get this right.
Absolutely. If I look at some of the most amazing IT professionals I’ve worked with, they come from non-IT backgrounds. In my old role, one of the top computer scientists came with a language degree. That knowledge and expertise from the humanities... They have a huge role to play in IT. I think IT is now more inclusive than ever before.
JA: So, how are you going to approach this role – where are you going to start?
I first need to listen – listen to understand… Listen to understand what’s working well and where the issues are and then start of focus on the things that matter. We’ve already talked about the importance of digitisation and how the IT industry is moving from being a teenager to an adult. BCS has a stewarding role to play in how the industry becomes that adult – through professionalism. IT needs to play its role in sustainability. That’s a big focus for us and as we start to make digitisation one of sustainability’s answers, that’ll open up tremendous opportunity.
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And the third piece is, how do we re-imagine work? Coming out of the pandemic, people are starting to ask: “What does work mean for me?” Can BCS be a role model for that future, digitised, sustainable enterprise? I think it can be. I’d like BCS to be seen as a role model – recognised world wide – as the institution that can help us create the IT that society needs: a much more sustainable IT, a more inclusive IT. BCS can help create that sense of belonging that IT professionals are looking for.
MP: What can members expect?
From a members’ perspective, I’ll be having open meetings with many of the leaders. You’ll see me coming out to branches – I want to be close to members and understand what they see as important. Again, I want to listen and to understand. When I’ve got that understanding, we can start to form the right strategies and make a difference.
What’s fundamental for a membership organisation is feeling that sense of belonging – that pride: “I’m part of something bigger than me and I can make a difference.” That’s what we want to try and engender – that feeling of pride in being part of BCS and that feeling of “I can make a difference”.
MP: And in terms of external influence – influencing government – what are your plans?
The team has already put in place the Influence Board, it’s shaping how we leverage the membership – and members’ expertise – to influence the right agenda. Topics like: trust in digital, security and privacy, safeguarding – these are big, complex policy topics. Governments around the world are grappling with them and BCS needs to have that point of view. I’m passionate, it’s really important that we put the right guardrails in place so government can do its job. We’ve had the open letter to the new Prime Minister. We’re also connecting with minsters of state, ministers we need to influence – we’ll be doing that through Trustee Board and with Council – to help shape [government’s] ideas about how IT can play a role is solving those big society issues... Issues that matter for governments around the world.
