Richard Holway

I am saddened to hear of the death of Fiona Timothy, at the young age of 63, via the LinkedIn post by Jamie Webb. In the early 2000s, Fiona became both a client and a friend. John Molton’s Alchemy had acquired Cedar and brought in Fiona as CEO in July 2004 of the renamed COA Solutions (think Cedar Open Accounts). Fiona very successfully grew COA through a series of over a dozen acquisitions to the point where it was sold for £100m in 2010 to Vin Murria Advanced Computer Software (ACS).

After the announcement of the death of Dame Steve Shirley yesterday, I am especially saddened  to learn of the death of another IT icon and  dear friend, Roger Graham on 8th Aug 25 at the age of 86. Roger has been a friend of mine for almost as long as I have been in tech Archives of IT wrote the following:- “Roger began his long career in the IT industry at IBM in the mid-1960s before leaving to join BIS in 1969, then a small software start-up.

Very sad to learn of the death of Dame Steve Shirley at the age of 91 on 9th Aug 2025 after a short illness. Steve was a trail blazer in so many ways. Arriving on the Kindertransport. Settings up Freelance Programmers in 1959. Later named FI, which became Xansa. IPOed in 1996 and was acquired in 2007 by Steria. So now part of the Sopra Steria Group. Steve's actions encouraged so many women into tech. And in doing so pioneered WFH before it became almost 'the norm'.