Robin Dargue CIO50 2008

What bigger challenge is there after becoming CIO of the world's biggest drinks company Diageo aged just 36, turning around its global IT function and introducing common business processes and a wall-to-wall SAP platform across the group's 180 markets and geographies?

For Robin Dargue the next challenge was Royal Mail, who he joined as group CIO and technology director at the end of 2007, replacing the retiring David Burden.

The Royal Mail hired Dargue to lead a £2bn IT-based transformation programme and he has already wasted no time in reskilling and reshaping the group's IT department to meet the task.

Dargue started out in the late 1980s at Logica Financial Systems before joining Mars as an IT analyst in 1989 and rising to the position of systems manager for UK and Ireland by 1995.

He moved on to become IS director at UDV, which later became part of Guinness and then Diageo where his final position was CIO and business process director.

Dargue is also a high flyer away from work, piloting light aircraft, and he also indulges in his passions for cycling and diving.