IBM’s UK&I general manager: ‘Don’t treat AI like a science experiment’

So Leon, you first joined IBM in the year 2000 as a graduate before leaving 18 years later, and you went to work for Oracle for about four years.

That's right.

You then came back to IBM in 2023 to run its global AI and data division, and then in 2025 you were promoted to General Manager of UK & Ireland.

So looking back to the year 2000, what first drew you to join IBM?

Thanks, Ailish, and, and look, thanks for having me on.

I appreciate it, and you've absolutely got the history right, so thank you on that one.

Without going through a, a, a load of history, I was very proud to join IBM.

I didn't have most probably a, a traditional entry into a large corporate, actually.

Just taking a step back, I...

And if you can just humor me for a couple of minutes.

We, as a family, we lived outside of the UK for a little bit, came back, and unfortunately, for a reason we won't go into, we kind of came back with nothing.

And, um, what that allowed me and the family to do [chuckles] was, uh, was arrive in, in places like bedsits.

We were lucky enough to get a council house, and I got the opportunity to really push myself incredibly hard.

And I came from a loving family who provided, but I certainly learnt what a work ethic was and, uh, worked my way through my GCSEs, A Level, managed to get my degree in the end, and certainly an MBA later down the line.

And it really, it really got me thinking about what I wanted to do, and I really enjoyed IT.

I did a computer science, uh, A Level, and IBM was very much on my radar, and I applied for the graduate scheme and managed to get it, and it was one of the most proudest days I had in my career, uh, joining a company now that's over 115 years old, uh, that has been iconic for that period of time.

And, um, yeah, I was very proud to, to do it.

With it came a, as I said, a work ethic.

It also taught me a few other things as well as I went through.

I'll be very open, when I first joined I, I pretended to be someone I wasn't.

I learnt, uh, that actually authenticity is really clear.

I didn't come from public school.

I learnt to actually become myself, be authentic, uh, understand that people have very different backgrounds, and actually you need to treat people in very different ways depending on their backgrounds.

And ultimately, you know, if you look at things, actually things like education, things like, uh, learning are a real gift.

And, and from that, I took full advantage of joining IBM and really all of their training programs and the wealth of knowledge that, uh, and, and training that IBM gave me and that allowed me to kind of progress, uh, through, uh, through IBM.