Allan Dickson

Allan has over 50 years of experience in the IT industry, and holds qualifications in Economics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and Information Resource Management from the Harvard Business School. He has a proven track record of delivering major IT-driven transformation in the South African retail and banking sectors, and has been particularly effective in building ‘bridges’ between IT and the user communities it serves. Armed with this breadth of work and insight, Allan is one of the most experienced retail systems professionals in South Africa. His immense retail systems experience spans Clothing and Textiles (as CIO at the Edcon Group), FMCG (as IT Executive at Woolworths) and Furniture (as IT Director of the Ellerines Group). Often regarded as a retail systems maven, Allan values any opportunities to share his experience and wealth of knowledge with others. As an Economics graduate (and being Scottish born!) he has a particular passion for effective cost-management of the IT function, and has implemented pioneering benchmarking projects locally and in Australia and South Korea. Allan brings significant gravitas and clout to the entrepreneurial and fleet-footed executive team at redPanda Software, and regularly contributes his expertise in strategic, project and operational management initiatives to support the company’s growth and strategic objectives. As a recognised global expert in building capability and releasing capacity in both organisations and people, Allan is an invaluable asset to the redPanda Software Group.