Business Computing:
the Second 50 Years

The Guildhall conference for business leaders

Speaker details

Born in 1950, Maurice Abell studied Control Engineering at Teesside University. He began his career in 1966, working for British Telecom based in Middlesbrough, which gave him a good grounding in Engineering and Telecommunications.

Having spent the next 8 years with various international companies including ICI, Rohm & Haas and Shell, Maurice Abell decided to branch off on his own and in 1977 set up his own company, Elfton CCS Ltd. Based in Cleveland, the company specialised in developing process control systems for Process Industries. The company grew quickly and by 1980 was employing over 50 people and had a large blue chip client portfolio.

In 1988 Cap Gemini acquired Elfton and Maurice Abell was made an Executive Director of the Consulting division. From there he went on to head up the Industry sector, the Manufacturing and Telecoms sector, and most recently the Process & Public sector.

In 1996 he led a successful multi-million pound outsourcing bid to take over the running of British Steel's technical division, CMS.

Maurice Abell was appointed Chief Executive and Managing Director of Cap Gemini UK plc, with additional responsibility for Ireland and Asia Pacific, in February 2000. He is now Chief Executive of the UK & Ireland region of the recently-formed Cap Gemini Ernst & Young group.

Maurice Abell lives in London with his wife and is an ardent supporter of Newcastle United football club.