Martin Fleming

Martin Fleming is a senior technology strategist and chief economist focused at the intersection of talent and technology by creating new ways of working, driving transformational change, and delivering industry leading financial performance.

Forward thinking and innovative with expertise in ground-breaking global strategies and directing impactful execution to consistently propel enterprises forward. Growth in top and bottom-line performance realized by utilizing multi-faceted business acumen, financial savvy, sales success, and technical knowledge.

Natural leader with proven track record tackling complex issues, anticipating global events, and achieving impressive results in highly competitive industry.

Martin Fleming is Chief Revenue Scientist, Varicent and Fellow, The Productivity Institute, University of Manchester, Alliance Manchester Business School, Booth Street West, Manchester M15 6PB UK

Martin is the former IBM Chief Economist and former IBM Chief Analytics Officer.

As the Chief Analytics Officer from 2010 to 2019, Martin led IBM’s business model transformation initiatives employing machine learning, artificial intelligence, natural language processing in a cloud computing environment to improve decision making and, as a result, financial performance.

As IBM’s Chief Economist, Martin provided regular macroeconomic insight and analysis to IBM’s senior leaders and engaged with select IBM clients providing a view of the global economic outlook. Martin shared technology industry developments, insights and forecasts with clients, industry professionals, academics, and policymakers.

Martin led IBM’s data science profession with the mission to drive the growth and expertise of IBM’s skilled data science professionals whose expertise will ensure success in the cognitive era.

The Chief Analytics Office is a data science center of competency focused on improving IBM’s business performance and achieving IBM’s financial goals. Over three years, the Chief Analytics Office delivered nearly $2.0 billions of profit improvement. As a technology services organization, IBM is focused on workforce transformation, the future of work, and labor market evolution.

Martin is also a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Fintech Advisory Committee.

Martin is a Fellow of the National Association for Business Economics recognized for outstanding performance as a business economist, contribution to the field of business economics, and service to NABE.

Martin is a member and former chair of the Conference of Business Economists. Martin is a participant in the Brookings Productivity Measurement Initiative, organized by David Wessel and chaired by Janet Yellen. Martin is a member of the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee.

Previously, within IBM Corporate Strategy, Martin led IBM’s Smarter Planet strategy development and execution with a focus on energy, climate change, transportation, water and Smarter Cities.

Prior to joining IBM, Martin was a Principal Consultant with Abt Associates, Cambridge Massachusetts. He was also Vice President, Strategy for Reed-Elsevier, Inc., the Anglo-Dutch information company. Martin began his professional career at the System Dynamics Group, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Martin holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Economics from Tufts University and a B.S. cum laude in Mathematics from University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Here are recent publications:

  • with Erik Brynjolfsson, Subhro Das, Prabhat Reddy, and Sebastian Steffen, “Forecasting Task-Shares and Characterizing Occupational Change across Industry Sectors” Harvard University Center for Research on Computation and Society Workshop on AI for Social Good, July 20- 21, 2020.
  • with Wyatt Clarke, Subhro Das, Phai Phongthiengtham, and Prabhat Reddy, The Future of Work: How New Technologies Are Transforming Tasks, MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, October 24, 2019.
  • The End of Money as We Know It – 20 30 Years; IBM Corp., Sept 24, 2019.
  • What is the Cognitive Enterprise? IBM Corp., August 2019.
  • The Mysterious Claim That Work Will Disappear; IBM Corp., July 2019.
  • “Services Sector Challenges: Information, Transparency and Value Creation; Forward”, Handbook of Services Science, Volume II, eds. Paul P. Maglio, Cheryl A. Kieliszewski, James C. Spohrer, Kelly Lyons, Lia Patricio, and Yuriko Sawatani; Springer International Publishing, 2019.
  • Unleashing the Cognitive Enterprise, Accelerating Transformation and Driving Business Results in the Age of Al; IBM Corp., March 2018.
  • The Cognitive Economy Harnessing Artificial Intelligence as an Engine of Progress and Prosperity; IBM Corp., February 2018.
  • With Arvind Krishna and Solomon Assefa, “Instilling Digital Trust, Blockchain and Cognitive Computing for Government”, Chapter 7 of Digital Revolutions in Public Finance, eds. Sanjeev Gupta, Michael Keen, Alpa Shah, and Geneviève Verdier, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC, 2017.
  • “Foreseeing Global Economic Transformation,” Jay W. Forrester Memorial Symposium, MIT Sloan School of Management, April 5, 2017.
  • With Hal Varian, “Using Big Data, the Fierce Urgency of Now: The Future of Forecasting is Nowcasting;” The Economist, The World in 2016; December 2015.
  • “Digitization Changes Everything: Improving Economic Measurement in an Era of Radical Innovation and Transformation, Monthly Labor Review, October 2015.