Page 38 - Remembering ISTEL

Remembering ISTEL

John Leighfield

ISTEL was formed in 1979 as BL Systems Limited (BLSL) through a merger of
the computer departments of various automotive manufacturing companies

brought together under the British Leyland (BL) umbrella.

John Leighfield became the chairman of the new company, which, in addition to

providing the computer resources and telecommunications services for the BL
companies, gradually started to provide similar services for other outside
companies. The company's headquarters and offices were established in

Redditch and Coventry. This organization pioneered many services, including
the establishment of Europe's first microwave communications
network in the late 1970s and launched Comet

(originally a US product) that in 1981 was
Britain's first commercial e-mail service.

In 1984 the company's name was
changed to ISTEL. The new company name
was said to have been chosen by

Leighfield randomly by combining pairs of
syllables that sounded vaguely related
to systems, telecommunications, or

technology until he hit upon one he liked the
sound of. By 1986 it was widely understood
among staff to be an acronym for “In Systems

The Established Leader” The more waggish
staff were known to say that the acronym stood for
"Information Screwed, Twisted and Eventually Lost" or

"I Stand To Earn Less".

.In October 1989, ISTEL was sold to AT&T and was renamed AT&T ISTEL.

Latterly it was documented that in 1997 AT&T quietly dropped the ISTEL name
putting its finance, commerce, travel, and healthcare divisions up for sale.

John retired from ISTEL in 1993 and joined RM (a British educational
computing company) as a non-executive director and in October 1994 became
the non-executive chairman. He has been a non-executive director of a number

of other companies as well, including Halifax plc and Synstar plc (of which he is
also non-executive chairman).

Page: 38