Andy Burton steps down as CIF chief in management shuffle

Founder takes on non-executive director role as sister group FAST's head honcho takes on same role at CIF

Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) chairman Andy Burton has stood down from his role as the organisation announces a management rejig.

Instead Burton will take on the role of non-executive director and will focus more on research and lobbying activities, while Richard Sykes steps into the chairman role.

Sykes joins CIF after holding a string of executive roles across the IT industry including Intellect, where he served on the board for three years.

Newly appointed Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) chief executive Alex Hilton will take on the same role at CIF as part of the move which the trio claims is down to its expansion and growing industry influence.

Burton claimed that the management rejig comes at an important time for the cloud industry.

He said: "These new appointments do in many respects demonstrate that CIF has become a mainstream establishment and a trusted voice for the cloud industry, and the management team needs to continue to drive our agenda forward.

"Since formation, our goal has been to promote trust and to work within the sector by developing a public facing Code of Practice to standardise and certify enterprises offering cloud computing services. This objective has not changed, but our roles have.

"Today CIF has a growing membership base, a number of special interest groups, a governance board, and a certification process. This incredible growth - matched at the same time by a growing influence at the heart of government both here in the UK and in Brussels - has meant that we have had to add to the existing management structure to enable us to continue the work we are already doing."