Julian Burnett

Julian Burnett has been a Non-Executive Director at Sook since February 2021. Prior to that, they served as VP, Global Markets - Distribution Sector (UK) at IBM from June 2018 to February 2021. At IBM, Julian was responsible for the Industry Unit for the Distribution Sector covering retail, consumer goods, travel & transport industries, accountable for annual recurring revenue of circa £500m. Julian worked with listed and privately owned clients to shape, win and oversee the delivery of transformative and innovative digital, technology and data solutions to drive sustainable improvement in their business performance. Some of their key achievements include:

• Driving annual recurring revenue (ARR) increases of over 5% YOY during a phase of high profile divestments and acquisitions, increasing market share and improving profitability through a re-balancing of revenue mix.

• Increasing services sales by over 15% despite extremely challenging market conditions during 2020.

• Introducing new empowered structures to drive teamwork and improve employee engagement and career growth.

• Improving client satisfaction, as measured by a circa 30% improvement in Net Promoter Score.

• Chairing the EMEA Consumer Industries Leadership Community, contributing to a global re-positioning of IBM’s industry portfolio of solutions and services, with an emphasis on the positive role of cloud, AI, machine learning and blockchain.

• Co-developing various thought leadership reports with World Retail Congress and GS1UK on sustainability in supply chains.

Julian Burnett completed an undergraduate degree in Information Technology at The Manchester Metropolitan University.