IT channel bigwigs sleep rough and raise £100,000

Charity effort aimed at helping fight youth homelessness included bosses from Dell, Vanix and Telecity

A CEO ‘sleepout' led by former Dell EMC UK boss Tim Griffin has raised £100,000 to help fight youth homelessness.

Some 18 bigwigs from the world of technology and business slept rough in front of the London Stock Exchange on 23 March.

These include former Dell EMC UK CEO Tim Griffin (front row, centre), current Dell EMC SVP Claire Vyvyan (front row, third from left) and Vanix directors Manny Pinon and Deep Toor.

The event was initially the idea of Mike Tobin, the ex CEO of Telecity (front row, second from right).

Just over a month later, the sum raised by the event passed the £100,000 marker.

It will go to charity Action for Children, whose aim is to prevent youth homelessness in the UK, an issue which affects 80,000 young people each year.

In a statement, Griffin said: "The work that Action for Children does to support disadvantaged children and young people is immeasurable. By giving these young people a better, more secure start in life they are investing in a lifetime of future possibility.

"Our contribution in this CEO Sleepout is a small token of our support, but hopefully a valuable contribution to raising the awareness of the extent of youth homelessness."

The full list of CEO sleepers was as follows:

• Nick Jones (managing director, Action for Children)
• Claire Vyvyan (vice president, Dell EMC UK)
• Tim Griffin (former senior vice president & general manager, Dell EMC)
• Manny Pinon (chief executive, Ampito Group)
• Nia Williams (chief executive, NWP Creative)
• Jeremy Lathom-Sharp (chief financial officer, Turner and Townsend)
• Mike Tobin (chief executive, Tobin Ventures, previously Telecity)
• Philip Padfield (chief executive, Science Warehouse)
• Robyn Isherwood (head of luxury Events, Lillingston)
• Deep Toor (director, Vanix)
• Iain Thompson (sales director, Appcelerate)
• Graeme Harrold (partner, Matelco)
• AJ Joshi (chief executive, Sivvr)
• Jonathan Swinney (chief financial officer, EnQuest)
• Frank Slevin (chairman, House of Fraser)
• Ed Clarke (MD, FedEx)
• Sheetal Kapoor (CEO, Edinburgh Collection)
• Mark Douglas (director, NatWest)