Role: CEO, OryxAlign
What’s been your business high point of the last 12 months?
Achieving our B Corp certification. It’s something we’d been working toward for a long time and it represents far more than a badge. It’s a formal commitment to the fact that we can be and will be a force for good. For our team, our clients, and our partners, it signals what OryxAlign stands for.
Name one thing your company is looking to achieve in 2026
Scale! Deliberately and sustainably. We’ve built strong foundations: the right culture, the right services and the right values. 2026-27 is about taking that to more clients, different geographies and doing it without losing what makes us, us.
What keeps you awake at night as a partner leader?
Not much, I sleep well. OryxAlign is in great shape, our team is strong, and we’re very clear on where we’re headed. If I had to name something, it’s probably the size of the opportunity in front of us can feel overwhelming at times.
Is AI being over-hyped?
The short-term impact is over-hyped, the long-term impact is almost certainly under-hyped. We’re in a messy middle period where everyone has announced an AI strategy but few have changed how they operate. The technology is obviously extraordinary, but the transformation takes longer and requires more change management than most vendors and consultants will ever admit.
What’s been your most successful internal AI project to date, and why?
We’re currently mid-project on transforming our service desk operations, and while it’s not finished, it’s already one of the most promising things we’ve worked on internally. Early results are encouraging, and it’s reinforcing a lesson I keep coming back to which is to start with an operational problem and work backwards to the technology.
Can you share a surprising prediction about how UK IT channel partners or the UK IT channel will evolve over the next 5 years?
I think we’ll see a consolidation, but not just the usual M&A activity. The partners who thrive will be the ones who’ve invested deeply in values-led business: sustainability, transparency, accountability to their communities. Clients are increasingly choosing partners who align with their own ESG commitments, and that’s going to reshape the competitive landscape in ways most people in the channel aren’t fully invested in yet.
Which tech gizmo (hardware or software) could you not function without?
My iPhone and MacBook. I’d like to say something more interesting but that’s the reality, unfortunately.
Which three famous people, dead or alive, would you invite to a dinner party?
Nikola Tesla, Cher, and Heston Blumenthal. A visionary who was right about everything but got almost no credit for it in his lifetime, a woman who has reinvented herself for six decades and refused to ever be written off, and a chef who turned science and obsession into some of the most extraordinary food on the planet. The conversation would never end, the menu would be unforgettable and I’ve already asked Cher to give us a song at the end.
If you had a warning label, what would it say?
May exhibit signs of impatience, strong opinions, and an irrational attachment to how things should be done. Steak served anything other than rare will not end well.
Which tech figurehead has impressed you the most this year, and why?
Jensen Huang. A man who bet everything on a vision most people didn’t understand for decades and watched the world finally catch up. What he’s built is extraordinary and he did it with patience and conviction most leaders talk about but rarely demonstrate.
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