King & Wood Mallesons CIO moves on after 16 years

King & Wood Mallesons has lost its long-serving chief information officer Ben Swindale, who has ended a 16-year run as the commercial law giant’s IT chief.

Ben Swindale.

Last month, Swindale took up a new role as a client delivery executive with Dimension Data, where he will work with an undisclosed public sector client.

Swindale first joined KWM predecessor Mallesons Stephen Jaques (MSJ) as an IT manager and infrastructure specialist back in March 1997.

Following a short stint in London working for leading British law firm Clifford Chance, Swindale was promoted to the role of chief technology officer in January 2000.

He ascended again to CIO following MSJ’s 2012 merger with Hong Kong-based firm King & Wood.

Swindale's major achievements in the role included working on the integration of the two law firms, and overseeing the implementation of Thomson Reuters Elite 3e solution as part of a major financial system replacement project.

Acting in the role following the departure is Tony Bridgewater, who was previously the chief technology officer at Salmat. He has also served as director of enterprise services at Deutsche Bank and a senior consultant of enterprise strategy at Microsoft.

“Tony has a wealth of experience in the technology space focused on business led strategy, having held senior roles in Salmat in Australia, and Deutsche Bank and Microsoft in the US,” a KWM spokesperson told iTnews.

The departure came as fellow big-six law firm Allens began looking for a new CIO after IT chief Gerard Neiditsch left the firm to pursue a research position in Europe.