Ian Lynch is 47 and formerly a curriculum director at the Technology Colleges Trust, the UK government agency responsible for the flagship specialist schools programme. He has a Masters in Education Management and has won national awards for innovation in IT in education. In 1998 he set up IRL Computer Systems Ltd winning the year 2000 Midlands Small Business of the year award sponsored by IBM, Access and Parcelforce. He now specialises in consultancy work related to the use of Open Source software in schools to reduce costs and improve learning.