James Lawson, director, CTO defence, Microsoft

What has been your path to power?

My career started in management consultancy working on business transformation and innovation projects for Deloitte. I led various data-driven initiatives for chief officers to design and justify radical changes. To pick one example, I helped the Metropolitan Police save 20% from its annual £3.2bn budget, while increasing front-line police numbers, cutting crime and improving public confidence. I also supported the rationalisation of its £1bn capital plan. I was commended by the Management Consultancies Association (MCA) for my work with police forces.

I wanted to get closer to the technologies I was advising customers to adopt, so then made then moved into start-ups. I joined WorkFusion (an AI and RPA venture) as a founding member of its EMEA team. We achieved rapid growth on entry into the market and I helped a diverse range of companies embrace automation, including Spotify, ICA, Santander and Deutsche Bank. I then took on a global role as head of strategic markets, overseeing the design, launch and delivery of pre-packaged automations, like payment screening and open-source news analysis to fight money laundering.

My next opportunity was with DataRobot (a leader in automated machine learning) as its chief evangelist. This was a broad role dispassionately educating the market on the opportunities and challenges of AI. This also included deepening key partnerships with data platform Snowflake and automation companies UiPath, Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism. In parallel, I have held longstanding pro-bono relationships with The Entrepreneurs Network and Adam Smith Institute (ASI) as a Senior Fellow and author.

The role at Microsoft (which I started mid-pandemic) then offered the opportunity to empower our most strategic customers to achieve more with technology, particular collaboration capabilities and cloud computing. For example, Microsoft’s Azure is at the heart of MODCloud, which is enabling the Defence sector to enhance mission capabilities (like Defence Medical Services, with an integrated health records system).