Our Story
So Inspired, He Quit
Nearly five years ago, Darren Capehorn had a realisation that changed his life.
He had enjoyed 23 years leading process improvement at Lloyds, delivering some of the world’s largest and most complex IT projects. This included payments integration for two of the largest Bank mergers ever undertaken and the architecture for the hub of cheque clearing in the UK.
In April 2008, his challenge was to deliver the world’s largest WebSphere Message Broker solution. He had worked with hundreds of consultants in the past, but the people he’d hired this time were turning out to be different.
The team, which included Tom Kelleher and Ben Hallifax, had a unique skill set and way of working that Darren hadn’t encountered before.
They combined delivery and process experience, with technical excellence and payments subject matter expertise. They used these skills to enable the business to focus on what was important to them. Then they documented and traced this through to a solution which used technology only when appropriate.
After years of being presented with ivory tower blueprints the business could neither understand nor afford, this team were a breath of fresh air.
Darren’s realisation was that without these guys, they would never have delivered a solution at all.
Icon Solutions Was Born
Darren was so inspired, he gave up on the idea of a golden handshake and ended his prestigious career at Lloyds to join Tom and Ben at what was ‘Strategic Thought Group PLC’.
With a vision of a new kind of consultancy, the three of them arranged a management buy-out of their firm. In 2009, Icon Solutions was born.
Since then, our company has more than doubled in size and has become the kind of consultancy that we would want working for us. We continue to grow, inspired by deeply held values and the clear vision of delivering simple solutions to your complex technology challenges.
