The UKtech50: The top 20

In 2006, Darrell Stein became CIO at Marks & Spencer. The appointment was a homecoming of sorts for Stein, who started his career at M&S as an IT graduate in the early 1990s and rejoined the company motivated by the challenge of introducing change. Experience acquired in various IT management and consultancy roles enabled him to take on the challenge of completely restructuring the retailer’s IT group.

By the second year of his tenure, Stein had already reduced incremental IT spend by 60%, with the overall cost of technology remaining flat, the result of a “spend and save” approach introduced after the creation of the IT strategy. At M&S he also has a seat on the operating board and responsibility for logistics.