The Information Technologists' Company has its origins in the early 1980s when two IT professionals, Alan Benjamin and Bernard Harty, approached the City of London with the idea of starting a livery company for people working in IT.

Why set up an IT livery company?

The livery ethos of promoting professional standards, supporting education and training and undertaking charitable work was clearly relevant to the many successful IT professionals who were now looking to give something back to the industry and to the wider community.

Setting up a livery company for information technologists also reflected both the changing nature of work within the City of London, and the increasingly important contribution of the IT industry.

Company milestones

In 1986, the Company of Information Technologists was made a City Company without grant of livery. Six years later, we were awarded full livery company status, receiving our Charter from the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London.

The Company's armorial bearings, or coat of arms, were granted by Garter King of Arms in 1989. In 2001, we took up permanent residence at 39a Bartholomew Close, now known as Information Technologists' Hall. A portrait of the founding Court (the governing body of a livery company), presented to us in 1998, is on display in the hall. The Company is the 100th livery company of the City of London.