Suggestions
Bob Harding
Head of Enterprise Architecture at RSPB
Professional Background
Bob Harding is a seasoned professional in the field of Information Technology Strategy, Architecture, and Delivery. With a wealth of experience spanning over several decades, Bob has held pivotal roles in various prestigious organizations, showcasing his expertise in managing teams across the full life cycle of IT projects, from architecture to operations. His leadership in software development management is notable, where he skillfully employs methodologies such as Agile, SCRUM, and the waterfall model to drive project success and enhance team productivity.
His extensive career features significant roles, including his current position as the Head of Enterprise Architecture at RSPB. In this capacity, Bob plays a critical role in shaping the digital strategy of an organization dedicated to conservation and biodiversity. Prior to this, he made impactful contributions as the Interim Head of Digital Development at The Prince's Trust, where he leveraged technology to empower young individuals, enhancing their prospects for a brighter future. His time as Development Manager at the Imperial War Museums demonstrates his ability to integrate technology with organizational goals in culturally significant institutions.
At Mencap, he served as an Architect/Programme Manager, contributing to projects aimed at improving the lives of people with learning disabilities. His earlier role as Assistant Director - Delivery at the Nursing and Midwifery Council saw him overseeing various healthcare-related projects, ensuring regulatory compliance and enhancing service delivery to the public. Further demonstrating his versatility, Bob also held the position of Head of Application Services and Head of Architecture and Solutions at the same organization, where he was responsible for the comprehensive development and deployment of IT solutions across multiple departments.
Bob's career also encompasses leadership roles in other high-profile organizations, such as Citizens Advice, where he was the Head of Architecture and Solutions, and Transport for London, where he contributed as an Enterprise Architect. His work at Tech Mahindra as an Architecture Consultant and at Cancer Research UK in various architecture and development roles emphasizes his adaptability and significant contributions to the non-profit sector.
His foundational experiences include working as a Lead IS Architect and Head of Enterprise Integration Solutions at T-Mobile International, as well as overseeing development initiatives as the Head of Development. These roles highlight his capacity to manage complex IT environments and large-scale projects effectively. Bob's tenure at CACI as a Senior Consultant and as a Technical Project Manager at B.P. Exploration further solidifies his reputation as a leader in IT strategy and project management.
Education and Achievements
Bob Harding's educational background has equipped him with the essential skills and knowledge to excel in the fast-evolving IT landscape. His continual professional development underscores his commitment to staying at the forefront of technological advancements and best practices within the industry. Bob is known for his expertise in Enterprise Architecture, particularly in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Enterprise Integration, making him a sought-after professional for companies looking to streamline their operations and optimize their IT infrastructure.
Given his broad industry experience, Bob has developed a unique skill set that encompasses not only the technical aspects of IT but also the necessary soft skills to manage and inspire teams effectively. His contributions to each organization he has worked with reflect his ability to evaluate complex problems, devise innovative solutions, and implement these strategies successfully across diverse teams.
Bob's involvement in projects focusing on outsourcing, offshoring, and managed services negotiation denotes his comprehensive understanding of global supply chains and vendor management, ensuring organizations achieve their strategic objectives through efficient resource allocation and cost control. As a leader, Bob champions the cultivation of a collaborative team culture, encouraging his teams to embrace agile methodologies and adapt to the dynamic demands of the technology landscape.
Achievements
Throughout his career, Bob Harding has achieved numerous milestones that highlight his impact on the organizations he has served. His strategic leadership in IT architecture has been instrumental in radically transforming organizational efficiencies and capabilities. Some of his notable achievements include:
- Leading the Enterprise Architecture team at RSPB to successfully align IT initiatives with the broader goals of wildlife conservation, fostering a culture of innovation within the organization.
- Successfully driving a digital transformation initiative at The Prince's Trust that leveraged cutting-edge technology solutions to enhance service delivery and engagement with youth.
- Managing critical IT development projects at Imperial War Museums that merged the worlds of technology and history, resulting in enhanced visitor experiences and operational efficiencies.
- Contributing significant advancements in the healthcare sector during his time at the Nursing and Midwifery Council, focusing on the development of integrated IT services designed to support healthcare professionals.
- Orchestrating complex architecture framework systems at T-Mobile International that streamlined services across multiple geographic locations, demonstrating his ability to manage global IT solutions effectively.
- Navigating the challenges of large-scale IT project management at B.P. Exploration, wherein his strategic insights directly contributed to improved operational performance within the organization.
In addition to his accomplishments within individual organizations, Bob has built a reputation for mentoring emerging leaders in IT strategy and project management. His passion for knowledge sharing and professional growth has made a positive impact on many careers, solidifying his standing as a respected figure in the industry.
Bob Harding's career thus far is a testament to his dedication and expertise in IT strategy and architecture. He continues to lead with a focus on innovation, collaboration, and strategic alignment, paving the way for future advancements in the constantly evolving world of technology.
People also viewed
Related People
Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.