Our history
Itad was set up by Derek Poate and Mike Felton in 1984, and for several years specialised in monitoring and evaluating large agricultural and rural development projects.
Our original name – ITAD, or Information Technology and Agricultural Development – reflected the importance of computers and IT to the developing world in the 1980s. But as IT became more mainstream through the 1990s, Itad’s work was also expanding beyond agriculture and economics. We brought our specialist skills in monitoring and evaluation to the wider international development arena, using information to inform development in many other areas.
As the scope of our work changed, the name had to follow. We revised the meaning of our acronym to Information, Training And Development, but the continued expansion of our service offering made this obsolete in 2013. We realised that no acronym could tell the full story of our services, knowledge and expertise, so we became simply Itad. Not an acronym, but a company name that stands on its own, with a proud history.