Nick Kalisperas

Nick Kalisperas is a director of the IT lobby group Intellect. According to his profile on Intellect's website, he is "responsible for developing and promoting Intellect's programme and member facing activity with relation to eGovernment at both the central and local level".

Biography
According to the profile, prior to joining Intellect, Kalisperas worked for the following PR agencies :
 * Ludgate Communications
 * Text 100 Public Affairs
 * IGA

Kalisperas is a member of the IPR Government Affairs Group (GAG), a vocational group of the Institute of Public Relations, although the listing may be out of date as it describes him as still working for Text 100 Public Affairs. GAG describes itself as "the only UK professional group for individuals working in public affairs, government relations, issues management or lobbying. The Group's membership represent their employer's or client's interests to Government and Parliament in the UK, to local government, to the Commission and the Parliament in the European Union and internationally." 

He is also listed as an author on the website of the Butler Group, although his page does not list any articles by him. This is presumably because he contributed an article titled "Getting IT right" to its Information Economics Journal in October 2003. The Butler Group describes itself as "Europe's leading IT analyst company providing analysis without compromise".

The PR man schools the Professor on ID card technology
In the following exchange during evidence to the House of Commons Home Affairs committee in February 2004, Kalisperas proved that his background in public relations was no barrier to him flatly contradicting Professor Martyn Thomas, a visiting professor at Oxford University's Computing Laboratory :


 * Professor Thomas: I believe that is the choice that the Government needs to make. I think that it is highly unlikely that it will successfully implement an ID card system within the timescale and budget that it currently envisages. I think that its best chance of doing that is to restrict what it is attempting to do and to reduce the complexity of what it is attempting to do as greatly as possible, to make it as simple as it possibly can because that will take some of the risk out...


 * ...Mr Kalisperas: Unlike Professor Thomas, who is clearly on the outside looking in, we have been working with the Home Office for two years on this. They have not rushed to judgment in any aspect of the work they have been doing. In the work that they have been undertaking with our members they have  kept an open mind. They have a better understanding of what the technology can do and what it can deliver and that process is ongoing... Unlike Professor Thomas, I do not think we are an industry of incompetents. We are highly skilled, highly able people who have delivered some of the most leading edge software that this country has seen. Credit needs to be given to the Home Office for the approach that they have taken.

"This is not about influence" - Kalisperas defends ID card pre-procurement meetings brokered by Intellect
In May 2005, The Times reported on Intellect's role in a series of meetings between the Government and companies hoping to land ID card contracts:


 * "The meetings between IT companies and the Government have taken place at Intellect, the UK’s biggest IT, telecom and electronics trade body. Intellect confirmed that Home Office officials were present at seminar and conference sessions on the matter. Nick Kalisperas, director of public sector at Intellect, said: 'This is not about influence. It is about constructive dialogue between customers and suppliers and about what can be realistically developed within the given timescale. We firmly believe the key to a successful project is early dialogue between customer and suppliers.'"

SourceWatch resources

 * Intellect
 * UK National Identity Cards Scheme