Ian Horne
Technology leadership grounded in the work.
I started in production operations for a global airline reservations system, working shifts and learning from the people keeping it running. Networks, infrastructure and engineering followed. That experience still shapes how I lead: understand what people depend on, listen to those closest to the work and make decisions that hold up in practice.
My career has taken me through aviation, telecommunications, secure government environments, enterprise software and education. I have led internationally distributed teams across applications, product, data, cloud, infrastructure, cybersecurity and service operations.
Building the organisation
At Kaplan International, my remit grew from security and infrastructure into broader group technology leadership. I helped build the global function, bringing together capabilities that had developed separately across regions.
That involved developing people as well as changing structures: helping managers take broader responsibility, establishing common expectations and giving teams a clearer way to work across organisational boundaries. Shared capabilities supported the businesses while local teams retained ownership where their knowledge and relationships mattered.
How I lead
Looking back on that work, I have described my approach this way:
I set clear standards, developed people, let evidence lead, and acted when it didn't.
People need to know what is expected, have the support to improve and understand the decisions affecting their work. I value honest discussion, clear accountability and the ability to raise a problem early. When something is not working, I address it fairly and follow through.
I work with business leaders to agree priorities and make choices about investment, capacity and risk. I stay close enough to the engineering and operations to test assumptions and understand what a decision will mean in delivery.
Career context
Kaplan International — group technology leadership across international businesses, building shared capabilities and developing a global team.
SHL — infrastructure and automation leadership, including technology transition during a corporate separation.
Gartner and CEB — infrastructure, production platforms and automation through acquisition and integration.
Earlier career — aviation systems at Galileo, carrier and enterprise networks at INS/Lucent, and secure government environments at Raytheon.
Engineering and practical AI
I have kept the curiosity that brought me into engineering. I still build, use AI-assisted development and explore automation. It helps me understand what is useful, what needs checking and what it takes to make a promising idea dependable.
My interest is in technology that improves a real service or process, with people able to act on its output and take responsibility for the result.
What I am looking for
Permanent and interim CIO/CTO roles where I can build capable teams, help an organisation develop and make technology useful to the people who depend on it. Work with a clear purpose matters to me.