LEON BUTLER
THE TECHNOLOGY INTERVIEW
n his office at IBM’ s UK headquarters in London, Leon Butler is discussing test tubes. It’ s an unusual metaphor for the recently appointed CEO of IBM UK and Ireland to use when talking about AI, but it cuts to the heart of his vision for the technology.
“ My favourite analogy is an opaque test tube with liquid inside – that’ s the data the model’ s trained on, but you can’ t see what’ s in there,” he explains.“ You add your own data, mix it up, but would you drink it? You need to understand what the model’ s trained on before mixing in your data.”
This focus on transparency runs through Leon’ s strategy since he took the helm in January, following his return to IBM after four-and-a-half years at Oracle. While many enterprises chase headlinegrabbing AI implementations, he is steering IBM’ s UK and Ireland operations toward measurable productivity gains and practical applications.
“ We are a leading AI and hybrid cloud company and AI is very much integral to that,” he says.“ We support enterprise clients as well as the public sector, focusing on productivity gains and making them successful through AI and hybrid tools.”
IBM watsonx tackles fragmented data challenges for enterprises Six months into his tenure, Leon is confronting what he sees as the primary obstacle to effective AI deployment: data quality. This focus has shaped IBM’ s
LEON BUTLER
TITLE: CEO UK & I COMPANY: IBM
INDUSTRY: ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
Leon joined IBM in 2000, returning in 2025 as UK and Ireland CEO after four years at Oracle. His focus is implementing practical AI solutions for measurable productivity gains.
watsonx portfolio, which has evolved from its Jeopardy-winning origins into a suite of enterprise tools.
“ Data is one of the biggest inhibitors that we see,” Leon explains.“ We’ re seeing a lot of unstructured data challenges now within AI in particular.”
The watsonx portfolio now encompasses several components addressing different aspects of enterprise AI implementation. Watsonx. AI provides model development and training capabilities, while watsonx. data focuses on structured enterprise information. Watsonx. governance – its platform to speed responsible, transparent and explainable AI – has gained particular traction among regulated industries.
“ Watsonx. governance is top right on the quadrants and you’ ll see a lot of global systems integrators using it from a governance perspective,” Leon notes.
The company’ s recent acquisition of DataStax highlights this data-centric approach, bolstering IBM’ s capabilities
42 June 2025