Graham Whitehead

Graham Whitehead was British Telecommunication’s Principal Consultant looking at the future of Telecomms and IT.
He joined the BT Laboratories after graduation and has worked a wide variety of disciplines, such as mechanical connections and structures, optical transmission systems, the packaging and cabling of optical fibres, hydrospace engineering. He was production manager of the optical received project which designed and manufactured the receivers used in the TAT-8, PTAT and NPC trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific submarine systems. For the latter he was awarded the Queen's Award for Technology in 1990.

In 1989 he moved to the USA on secondment to Du Pont as the production manager and co-ordinator for the manufacture of the optical amplifiers and tuneable narrow line width lasers which were part of product portfolio of BT&D, a joint venture of the two companies.
In 1990 he returned to the BT Labs and was appointed manager of the Business Systems Group which investigates the modelling of business structures and their mutual interactions. In 1992 he became BT's Advanced Concept Manager and specialised in presenting the work of the BT Labs to both consumers and other parts of BT. In 1999 he became BT's Principal Consultant looking at the future of telecomms and IT.
He now runs a small futures consultancy company. He currently presents on the Futures of Technology, Networks, Innovation, Presence and Collaboration techniques. He sees great changes in the way we will work, play and socialise in the near next few years.
He delivers up to 300 presentations every year, and has produced a series of video tapes and DVDs. He also contributes to many journals, newspapers, radio and TV programmes. In 2004 he was appointed as Visiting Professor at the Business School at Salford University.

His three main areas of specialisation:-

1. The changing face of displays and how humans will interface with information – mostly mobile and even information that is pre-formatted and steered effortlessly to your requirements.

2. “Cloud” computing and networking – its advantages and scary bits. Easy, seamless access to your information from anywhere at any time.

3. Strategies for using information now and in the future to ensure that your enterprise not only is successful now, but will also be in a position to accept and instantly use the new technologies as soon as they are available.