CEO, HorizonX Quantum & AI Strategy
Steve Suarez
I'm Steve. Three decades in consulting, telecommunications and financial services — twenty of them at HSBC, latterly as Global Head of Innovation. Now I lead HorizonX and advise the boards working out where quantum, AI and cybersecurity actually change the business.
CEO of HorizonX and former Global Head of Innovation at HSBC. I help boards turn quantum and AI from hype into strategy they can act on.
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So — what do I actually do?
Most people hear “innovation advisor” and picture a keynote and a slide deck. The plainer version: I sit with the people who control the budget and help them decide what to do about a technology nobody in the room fully understands yet.
Quantum computing, AI, post-quantum cryptography, cybersecurity — which of them changes your economics this cycle, which you only need to prepare for, and which you can safely ignore. Then the harder half: securing the sponsorship, building the literacy, and standing up a programme that survives contact with the business.
So — what do I actually do?
Most people hear “innovation advisor” and picture a keynote and a slide deck. The plainer version: I sit with the people who control the budget and help them decide what to do about a technology nobody in the room fully understands yet.
Quantum computing, AI, post-quantum cryptography, cybersecurity — which of them changes your economics this cycle, which you only need to prepare for, and which you can safely ignore. Then the harder half: securing the sponsorship, building the literacy, and standing up a programme that survives contact with the business.
A strategic innovation consultancy, founded in London. Twenty years inside a global bank taught the lesson it is built on: innovation programmes fail on sponsorship and capability, not ideas — so HorizonX builds the capabilities, processes, tooling and culture first.
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Senior advisor to McKinsey — strategic guidance to clients and consulting teams on the decisions that are hard to reverse, connecting clients with the networks that make a direction viable, and mentoring the talent doing the work.
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Guest lecturer on MIT xPRO’s Quantum Computing: Strategy and Impact — a six-step framework taking executives from why-quantum-matters-now through sponsorship, strategy and mobilisation to experimentation and scale.
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Co-founded to fix a specific problem: no enterprise can tell whether it is ahead or behind on quantum, because there is no shared measure. The Quantum Index benchmarks the quantum readiness of enterprises globally.
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Growth Advisory Board — making sure the science has a commercial engine behind it. Enterprise adoption strategy, executive engagement, and turning quantum capability into scalable competitiveness across aerospace, finance, energy, healthcare and manufacturing.
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Twenty years across Chicago, Paris and London — Change Delivery for 22 European countries, then Risk and Compliance transformation, finishing as Global Head of Innovation for Global Functions. Mobilised 387 innovation champions, turned 56 crowdsourced ideas into production, and graduated over 835 colleagues through the Risk Nanodegree.
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30+ years across consulting, telecommunications and financial services puts a lot of people in the room — the institutions, boards and teams I’ve worked with along the way.
Steve Suarez