Gary Arthurs CIO50 2008

Gary Arthurs has been CIO of HMV Group since 2007 where he heads up a tech team of 125, responsible for IT across the Group's 500 stores. At HMV the CIO's priority is to align IT with business strategy to gain more value from it.

Prior to joining the retailer, Arthurs, who has a marketing degree from Lancaster University, spent seven years at electrical retailer Comet as head of IT - with an IT remit covering its stores, warehouses, after sales centres, home delivery stations, a call centre and a website.

Arthurs started out as an IT analyst at Beecham Group, then worked his way up the IT career ladder at Safeway over a period of 14 years, moving from an IT project manager role to director of IT programme management, and finally director of IT business services, with an 150-strong IT headcount.

He lives in Buckinghamshire, enjoys reading and cycling and also plays competitive hockey and tennis.