Welcome to the IT Pro Panel Profile, where we talk to the CIOs, experts and IT leaders that make up the IT Pro Panel, and discover their top tech, pet peeves and IT inspirations.
The world of publishing is a fast-paced one, where organisations need to be prepared to drop what they're doing and respond to breaking news. Add to that the pressures of having to produce a new issue of one of the world's most popular celebrity magazines on a weekly basis, and you have an environment that requires a lot of IT enablement.
It's an especially challenging task when you also have to contend with two decades of legacy infrastructure and technical debt, as Hello Magazine CTO Andy Macharg knows. Armed with years of experience in the media industry, he's on a mission to modernise the organisation's technology platforms.
Andy Macharg
CTO - Hello Magazine
Describe your role in 20 words or fewer.
My job is building products and services that support the needs of the business.
What was your first computer?
Like many people around my age, my first computer was the Sinclair ZX81 - an utterly groundbreaking machine that introduced a generation to home computing.
What do you like most about working in IT?
I love the problem solving aspect of IT. It’s always fun to wrestle with new challenges.
If you could magically get rid of one piece of technology forever, what would it be, and why?
It’s not so much tech, but the thousands of acronyms we use. For 'normal' people looking in, we talk in an odd three-letter language.
What future tech innovations are you most excited about?
I’m not currently excited about any future technology on the horizon; I’m more concerned with optimising the technology that we’ve already got.
Who’s your biggest inspiration in the world of tech?
My colleagues inspire me every day.
