Associated British Ports welcomes Sean Kelly as its new group IT director

The UK’s largest port operator, Associated British Ports (ABP), has appointed Sean Kelly (above) as its new group IT director.

Mr Kelly was most recently chief information officer of business platforms at global marketing and advertising agency network Dentsu, while previous roles have included leading IT teams at Microsoft, BT, EY, Royal Bank of Scotland.

“It’s great to welcome Sean to ABP,” said ABP CEO Henrik Pedersen.

“Building smart, flexible and resilient technology platforms to deliver on customers’ needs and business optimisation is a key foundation of our strategy. We’ve made some great strides forward but we’re ambitious about where technology can take us,” he added.

Mr Kelly said: “What attracted me to ABP is the company’s great culture coupled with the ambition to carry through its leading position in the UK ports sector to the areas of technology, digitisation and cyber security.”

ABP was the first UK operator to build a 5G network across a major port, deploying state-of-the-art terminal operating systems across its terminals and upgrading vessel traffic and marine management systems.

It has also deployed cutting-edge technology applications to make operations more efficient, such as trialling drone technology and the installation of Internet of Things applications on port equipment.