Board of Directors

Richard Horton - Chair

Richard first got involved in itSMF back in 2010 and soon realised that being actively involved was going to make a big difference to his professional development.  15 years on he's had no cause to regret that decision. He led the UK's Transition Special Interest Group running events and producing content. He then did the maximum allowed time of 8 years as a Director on the UK Board. By the time that came to an end he had joined the itSMF International Board and after 2 years as a Director, he has become the Chair.  

Richard continues to be active in itSMF UK where he is a Group Chair. He continues to run events and produce content for the UK chapter and is also producing content for International (see the Blogs page).  He is the Head of IT Service Management at NIHR RDNCC. While this does not involve any international travel, you can find him at the UK conference.  

Richard can be contacted on richard.horton@itsmfi.org

Stephan Brendel - Vice Chair

Stephan has been in the IT industry since he started his career in 1983 with IBM. He has been a systems engineer for many years with several large system integrators, including General Electric, and touched base with management frameworks like ITIL around the millennium, when he was running a consultant and training organisation.

He joined APMG-International - an independent certification body - in 2009 to lead marketing and operations in EMEA. Since then, he is a member of itSMF, where he joined the board and is holding the position of the CFO since 2021.

Stephan has a deep insight in how Management Practices can be adapted. His field of expertise in the IT sector gives him a lot of live examples how changes can turn things upside down and how important it is to have a good balance of behavioral skills and methodological competencies.

Stephan holds several IT Service Management and Project Management certifications and is also a certified Business Relationship Management Professional.

His motivation to be on the board of directors at itSMF International is to work with the global community to move IT Service Management to a new meaning in the 21st century, to enable a public recognition of our profession and to help chapters connecting closer to each other.

Stephan can be contacted on stephan.brendel@itsmfi.org.

Martin Neville -Treasurer

A qualified accountant and MBA, Martin has been in IT Service Management for nearly 30 years.  He started his career  working in the UK government sector and, for the past 12 years, at Tata Consulting Services where is an Engagement Director in the Global Consulting Practice.  He has been particularly involved in the development of SIAM and is a contributing author to the SIAM Professional Body of Knowledge and has been an examiner for the EXIN SIAM qualifications. He is a regular presenter at conferences in the UK and in mainland Europe.  Martin has been involved with itSMF for nearly 20 years and is a former Chair of the UK Chapter.

Martin can be contacted at martin.neville@itsmfi.org

Patrik Solc - Director

I have more than 20 years of experience in IT business, over the last 17 years in management positions in global IT companies, where I have led multinational IT teams in Europe/Asia/Americas. I participated in IT projects for global customers in the position of Programme/Project Manager (IT strategy and deployment of ITIL processes, IT service delivery & operation, Cloud Services, IT Outsourcing, ServiceDesk/Call Center).

I have more than 5 years of experience working for itSMF Czech Republic. We organized four annual itSMF conferences with keynote speakers from Europe and USA.  Our main message is “inspire and being inspired“.

My deep experience is to organizing workshop, online events and webinars, online/onsite conferences and establish strong and long term partnerships with our partners.

As a member of the itSMF International Board I will share my experience with leading itSMF chapter and how we could extend cooperation of chapters around the world and extend collaboration with strategic partners.

Patrik can be contacted on patrik.solc@itsmfi.org

Brad Schimmel - Director

Brad is a leader in the design, management, and improvement of IT service delivery. He blends this with strong commercial skills and entrepreneurialism into account management and business development roles. 

He has managed service delivery teams that stabilized production systems, reduced support demand and improved customer satisfaction.

Brad resolves the conflict between the competing needs of cost reduction, growth and customer sentiment through applying the frameworks of service management, Lean, operating model and business processes design, with a deep understanding of technology and innovation.

As a Director of the itSMF International Executive Board, he represents the Asia Pacific region and assists new Chapters forming.

Brad can be contacted on brad.schimmel@itsmfi.org.