Speakers
Joanne Wright, Senior Vice President Transformation & Operations, IBM
This keynote reveals how IBM is turning AI ambition into real business impact. Joanne Wright will share bold, practical lessons from IBM’s own transformation—showing how trusted governance, human-centred adoption and future-ready skills can unlock value at scale, while agentic AI and quantum open the door to what comes next.
Joanne will focus on how IBM transformed its own business operations through AI across Finance, HR and IT, creating productivity gains and measurable business benefits.
Joanne Wright is Senior Vice President, Transformation and Operations.
Joanne Wright drives IBM's enterprise transformation as the company's "Client Zero" – delivering $4.5 billion in savings while simultaneously proving how AI and hybrid cloud unleash productivity, innovation, and growth at global scale. She delivers measurable business outcomes by transforming IBM's own operations first, then demonstrating these proven strategies to clients worldwide.
Leading IBM's operations, procurement, CIO, Chief Data and Analytics Office, and Global Real Estate organizations, Joanne has transformed how the company works. With her "Client Zero" vision, Joanne has revolutionized IBM through three core principles: eliminating operational complexity, simplifying end-to-end workflows, and automating manual tasks while embedding AI everywhere. Her teams saved an estimated 22 million hours since 2023 by deploying watsonx AI and automation tools, and under her leadership, IBM has redesigned its operating model, reimagined quote-to-cash processes, and deployed AI to create transparent, intelligent, and predictive supply chains that set the standard for enterprise transformation.
In her tenured career at IBM, Joanne has held key leadership roles across procurement, manufacturing, supply chain, real estate, client support and operations. Her Client Zero approach doesn't just improve internal productivity – it creates a blueprint for how enterprises can harness AI to transform their businesses and unleash a new era of growth.
Joanne champions diversity and inclusion as head of IBM's Women at IBM Community, where she founded the company's Women's Business Resource Group. Her leadership hasearned recognition as a Stevie Awards Female Executive of the Year, a two-time Fortune Most Powerful Women Next-Gen Award recipient, and Girls Inc. National honoree.
Joanne holds a bachelor’s degree from Glasgow Caledonian University. She enjoys spending her personal time with her teenage twins and is an avid tennis, swimming and cooking fan