When its CIO left at short notice, Belron chief executive Gary Lubner moved fast to plug the gap with an interim leader from Holdsway’s trusted network.

An information technology review in this global company looked impossible to act on. But the arrival of an interim chief information officer (CIO) made all the difference.

Holdsway introduced Paul Hobbs, a seasoned executive with extensive experience from CIO roles in several large, complex organisations.

“My task was keeping the ICT agenda moving forward. At the same time, plugging the global leadership void for the 300 people working in ICT outside North America. There was also a small headquarters team to manage,” Hobbs explains.

As permanent CIO Phil Pavitt explains,

“As well as the holding role, Paul did a great job preparing the ground for the full, business-wide transformation that I’m now running.”

Paul introduced the national ICT leads to one another across Europe, establishing relationships so we could all work together. Most had never met before.”

“We saw huge collaboration between Germany and France, Spain and the UK, which was all Paul’s work. We ran projects that we would never have started without his leadership,” Pavitt acknowledges.