Full Name
Simon Edward
Job Title
Director, South Bank BID & Former VP & CMO, IBM UK & Ireland
Company
South Bank BID
Speaker Bio
Simon is an influential senior leader, VP and CMO with a sustained record of innovation and success. He has recently left IBM after 35 years and is currently a Board Director of South Bank Business Improvement District (BID) and an Ambassador for London Tech Week, as well as an advisory member of a number of professional bodies.
With his new-found freedom, he is in the process of extending this with a small portfolio of ‘activities’ he enjoys, including Board, Non-Executive and charity roles, to complement those he is already involved with, while also allowing more time to spend with family and friends, as well as engaging in things he has always wanted to do.
Simon joined IBM in 1988, based in Paris, developing the process and contracts for acquiring third-party software. Since then he has held various technical and marketing roles in the UK, European and Global organisations.
In his final role, Simon was Vice President, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer and Client Advocacy Leader for IBM in the UK and Ireland as well as holding the role of Senior Location Executive for London. In these roles, he had responsibility for the full client journey and the entire marketing mix from strategy, through to execution and the associated analytics. As a Marketing Leader, Simon champions the latest approaches such as Agile, constantly ensuring that the client voice is at the heart of shaping decisions, while encouraging strong team engagement with a growth mind set.
In previous years, Simon was Director of Marketing & Communications for the Systems & Technology business in Europe before moving to the Market Insights & Development team at the start of 2012 as Vice President of MD&I Global Markets, promoted to CMO in 2018. He has always worked closely with IBM business partners and influencers, and spent two years managing the Volume Channels Marketing Team across EMEA, as well as leading a Research Project with the IBM Rüschlikon Lab in Zurich.
Prior to working for IBM, Simon worked for an IBM Business Partner, a large Personal Computer Dealer and an IBM end-user customer.
This earlier experience puts him in the position of working with IBM as an employee, a business partner and an end-user customer. Simon is a Chartered Marketer and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Outside of work, Simon spends time with his wife and two adult children, as well as participating in various hobbies including travel, gardening, theatre and cars, and is a uniformed Cub Scout Leader.
With his new-found freedom, he is in the process of extending this with a small portfolio of ‘activities’ he enjoys, including Board, Non-Executive and charity roles, to complement those he is already involved with, while also allowing more time to spend with family and friends, as well as engaging in things he has always wanted to do.
Simon joined IBM in 1988, based in Paris, developing the process and contracts for acquiring third-party software. Since then he has held various technical and marketing roles in the UK, European and Global organisations.
In his final role, Simon was Vice President, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer and Client Advocacy Leader for IBM in the UK and Ireland as well as holding the role of Senior Location Executive for London. In these roles, he had responsibility for the full client journey and the entire marketing mix from strategy, through to execution and the associated analytics. As a Marketing Leader, Simon champions the latest approaches such as Agile, constantly ensuring that the client voice is at the heart of shaping decisions, while encouraging strong team engagement with a growth mind set.
In previous years, Simon was Director of Marketing & Communications for the Systems & Technology business in Europe before moving to the Market Insights & Development team at the start of 2012 as Vice President of MD&I Global Markets, promoted to CMO in 2018. He has always worked closely with IBM business partners and influencers, and spent two years managing the Volume Channels Marketing Team across EMEA, as well as leading a Research Project with the IBM Rüschlikon Lab in Zurich.
Prior to working for IBM, Simon worked for an IBM Business Partner, a large Personal Computer Dealer and an IBM end-user customer.
This earlier experience puts him in the position of working with IBM as an employee, a business partner and an end-user customer. Simon is a Chartered Marketer and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Outside of work, Simon spends time with his wife and two adult children, as well as participating in various hobbies including travel, gardening, theatre and cars, and is a uniformed Cub Scout Leader.
Speaking At
