in November 2006, with Howarth joining the company in April 2007. The greatest challenge she faced was not to disturb the business, while at the same time switching it over to a new infrastructure. "The business has not missed a beat," she says with understated pride. "We've all aged and there were difficulties, but we had massive levels of energy from everyone involved. I told my team, 'I have never experienced a team that was literally thrown together, do such a fantastic job and I couldn't ask any more'." She believes the reason they all channelled so much of their energy into the project is that it -became personal for them.ong"Understanding the business and people are still the passions that get Howarth out of bed every morning. "Fundamentally the reason I love the job I do is the people, not the technology. It's a people business, like any general management role," she says of being a CIO. That interest in people has seen Howarth's responsibilities at Birds Eye extended to include HR. CIOs are often given change management or supply chain responsibilities, and some CFOs add the CIOs role to their quiver, but human resources is not a common addition. "HR is a hobby of mine. IT people are intrinsically about delivering transformation of the way you work. IT people get the process, but typically don't get the people change management needs. HR get the people dynamics, but they often don't get the process bit." Howarth, with her IT and change background and clearly visible people skills aims to meld the two together. Having spent a little time in Howarth's company, it is not difficult to imagine she will succeed in joining HR and IT in a mutually conducive relationship that has never been conceived of before.