Five years on from his 2011 MacTaggart lecture in which he traced Britain's computing heritage and called for the inclusion of computer science (CS) in the National Curriculum, Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt will discuss progress in CS education and digital skills, and the opportunities that flow from the next wave of British computing innovation in machine learning. Join Eric in conversation with Professor Chrisanthi Avgerou. 

Eric Schmidt (@ericschmidt) is the executive chairman of Alphabet, responsible for the external matters of all of the holding company's businesses, including Google Inc., advising their CEOs and leadership on business and policy issues. Eric joined Google in 2001 and helped grow the company from a Silicon Valley startup to a global leader in technology. He served as Google’s Chief Executive Officer from 2001-2011, overseeing the company’s technical and business strategy alongside founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Under his leadership Google dramatically scaled its infrastructure and diversified its product offerings while maintaining a strong culture of innovation.

Chrisanthi Avgerou is Professor of Information Systems at LSE’s Department of Management and Programme Director of LSE’s MSc Management, Information Systems and Digital Innovation. She is interested in the relationship of ICT to organisational change and the role of ICT in socio-economic development. She has served in various research and policy committees on information technology and socio-economic development of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) from 1996 until 2012.

The Department of Management (@LSEManagement) is a globally diverse academic community at the heart of the LSE, taking a unique interdisciplinary, academically in-depth approach to the study of management and organisations.  

In 1951 J Lyons and Co, an innovative British catering company famous for its teashops, ran the first practical business application and pioneered the world’s first business computer. In subsequent years, LEO (Lyons Electronic Office) computers were adopted by a host of blue chip companies at home and abroad. Today, the LEO Computer Society consists of former employers of LEO Computers and its succeeding companies, men and women who have worked with an LEO computer, and anyone who has an interest in the history of the company.

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