Larry Hirst
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Larry Hirst CBE is general manager of IBM UK, responsible for IBM's strategy, community programmes and 26,000 employees in the UK.
In previous roles within IBM, Hirst has been vice president of financial services and chairman of the e-learning Board in IBM Europe. In this role, he led initiatives that helped schools implement technology-enabled learning environments, assisted governments in developing the skills of their employees and citizens and enabled companies of all sizes to transform their workforce to acquire skills. He has also been assistant to the executive chairman in Armonk, NY, and director of operations for IBM in Eastern Europe and Russia.
In 2004, Hirst was appointed chairman of e-skills UK, the Sector Skills Council for IT, Telecoms and Contact Centres. He is also chairman of the Information Age Partnership Executive, an organisation formed in 1998 by the Department for Trade and Industry with a mission to help the UK achieve leadership as an e-economy. Born in Batley Carr in 1951, Hirst grew up in Chickenley and went to Wheelwright Grammar School and Hull University, where he studied maths. Hirst started his career as a photocopier salesman with Kodak. In 1977 he joined IBM in London as a sales trainee, making his name and the start of his fortune selling ATM cash dispensers to Lloyds Bank. Thus began his lifelong passion for coding in COLTS (Consumer OnLine Transaction System), an assembler-like language developed in North Carolina for the IBM 3600 Finance system. He was appointed CBE in the Queen's New Year Honours List in December 2006.
Hirst's career was celebrated in October 2006 in the Men of Science exhibition, which commemorated the work of Dewsbury men who had made a difference to the world of science and industry.
In 2008, it was announced that he was leaving his post as general manager of IBM in the UK, Ireland and South Africa, to become chairman of IBM EMEA. He will be replaced by Brendon Riley, an Australian.
