Rashik Parmar MBE FBCS is Group CEO of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. Rashik was until July 2022 the IBM Fellow and Vice President responsible for creating and driving IBM’s European technical strategy. His focus has been helping clients on the journey to becoming a cognitive enterprise, leveraging Cloud, AI and IoT technologies whilst creating a dependable IT platform. Drawing on thirty-nine years of practical experience in IBM, he is uniquely placed in developing strategies that are realistic whilst providing tangible business impact. He has worked with financial, retail and manufacturing clients on IT transformation projects of all sizes. Overall, he specialises in ensuring the technical success of complex IT projects that transform business models. Some of his work is summarised in the HBR Article he co-authored “New Patterns for Innovation” – Jan-Feb 2014.

Rashik  is a member of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Council, the Open University Council and chair the Indsutry Adviosry Board for the Digit Lab - a UKRI Next Stage Digital Economy Research Centre.

Rashik also chairs the Board of Trustees for IVE, a progressive training company developing creativity as the path to social mobility.

Rashik was awarded an MBE as part of the HRH Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday honours for his contribution to business and innovation.