Job Title : Group CIO and Technology Director

Organization : Royal Mail Group

Robin Dargue has been a regular member of the CIO50, appearing in the inaugural list in 2007 when he was CIO and business process director with drinks company Diageo, before topping the list the following year as group CIO and IT director at Royal Mail Group.

He joined Royal Mail in November 2007 to oversee a £2bn technology modernisation project – one of Europe’s largest – which included the installation of new systems, software and equipment across virtually all divisions of the organisation.

However, it was recently announced that Dargue will soon leave Royal Mail to take up a new role with networking technology company Alcatel-Lucent.

Before he goes, he will continue to oversee the migration of 30,000 desktop users from Lotus Notes to Microsoft’s cloud-based BPOS software, moving Royal Mail’s web presence to the cloud and the creation of an industry advisory board to promote technology innovation at the group.

Before his time at Royal Mail and Diageo, Dargue worked at Logica Financial Systems and Mars, where he started as an IT analyst before becoming systems manager for the UK and Ireland. He then became IS director at UDV that was acquired by Guinness, which in turn became part of Diageo.

As well as taking on huge IT projects Dargue enjoys piloting light aircraft, cycling and diving.