CIOs seem to have more than their fair share of challenges these days. But spare a thought for Discovery’s John Robertson, who has to oversee the IT supporting the particular requirements of a financial services company and a healthcare provider rolled into one. Robertson is Group CIO and has been with the company from the very beginning.

“In 1992, I had a contract with Q-Data and I was an independent contractor to them and others,” he explains. “[Current CEO and founder] Adrian Gore had the idea of combining a financial services company with a healthcare company and approached Q-Data to look for someone to take charge of all the technology infrastructure that this new idea would have to offer. So Adrian, Barry Swartzberg and I were there at the beginning and I started designing the basic systems we would need. I joined full-time in April 1993.”