Mr Nick Gaines Profile


Mr Nick Gaines

Job Title: Group Information Systems Director
Company Name: Volkswagen Group UK Ltd

Seminars
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    		• Is IT a Strategic Weapon or Survival Tool?
    Nick Gaines is the Volkswagen Group’s UK CIO.  Volkswagen is one of the world’s most successful companies, with great brands, innovative products and consistent strong performance.  The UK automotive market is one of the most competitive and complex in the world, creating unique challenges for people, processes and systems. 

    In the past two years, Gaines has built a new IT team, focussed on selling more cars, parts and finance, and has changed the IT mindset from service provision to business transformation.  The centre-piece of this has been the successful replacement of core vehicle sales and logistics systems.  This project was the largest change programme ever undertaken in the UK business.  Recently the Volkswagen team also built a new data centre, virtualised their legacy systems and implemented ITILv3. Today, Gaines is busy planning the next wave of change in the parts and aftersales business.

    The challenges of large change programmes are not new to Gaines, who was previously BAA's Director of Business Critical Systems and led the systems implementation at Heathrow's Terminal 5.  Gaines started his career as a nuclear engineer, before moving through financial services, airports and construction.

    Outside of work, Gaines enjoys playing guitar and hill walking with his three children.