Kyle Collins

Part of the Rising Stars 30 — a list of the UK's most talented young tech professionals in 2023

Kyle overcame adversity, putting himself through university despite finishing school with no A-levels, and defying expectations to study business and thrive at IBM. Only 3% of the UK tech industry is Black, which spurred him on.

"Once I'd seen this figure I knew this is exactly where I needed to be," he said.

With perseverance and creativity, Kyle spearheaded governance and operations projects in IBM's EMEA Adobe Workfront practice and created and delivered IBM's EMEA Workfront Specialisation Project, winning awards for his innovative work.

Fascinated by AI, but also aware of technologists' responsibility to ensure its outcomes are positive, Kyle is also a pianist and creates original compositions using music tech. He says he "finds humour in the unexpected and the absurd".