Microsoft MVP | AI & Fabric Specialist for Business Transformation | Helping Enterprises Unlock ROI with Azure, Copilot & Power BI | Forbes Tech | Keynote Speaker | CEO, Onyx Data

Strategic Data & AI Leader | Microsoft MVP | Oxford AI Strategist 

I bridge the gap between technical complexity and Board-level strategy. With nearly 15 years of experience, I have delivered over £93M in revenue growth for global enterprises by transforming data estates into high-velocity strategic assets.

Global Authority & Scalable Insight: 

LinkedIn Learning Instructor: Author of "How to Build and Execute a Successful Data Strategy," an industry-standard framework used by 10,000+ global learners (4.5/5 rating). 
Industry Recognition: Microsoft Data Platform MVP, Forbes Technology Council member, and Gartner Community Ambassador. 
Academic Rigor: Currently calibrating enterprise AI risk and leadership at the University of Oxford (Saïd Business School).

The "Onyx Methodology" in Action:  I help organisations move past "AI Hype" to achieve Operational Utility. Whether leading a global practice of 60+ consultants or advising the C-suite on £200TB+ migrations, my focus is on de-risking technology investments to drive EBITDA.

Core Specialisms:  AI Strategy & Governance (Purview) | Microsoft Fabric & Databricks Architecture | Data Monetisation | High-Performance Team Scaling.

Let’s connect,  I’m focused on the intersection of AI Ethics, Enterprise Strategy, and high-stakes Data Leadership. Always open to discussing the future of our industry with fellow Partners and Architects.

Leon Gordon

Turning 40 today.

Things I've learned:
→ The data is never clean
→ The deadline is always Monday
→ Nobody reads the documentation
→ The meeting could have been an email
→ I still Google VLOOKUP syntax

Normal service resumes next week.

Power Query just became a programmable compute engine inside Microsoft Fabric.
Not a refresh. Not a dataflow. A fully callable API.

You can now invoke M transformation scripts on demand, from notebooks, pipelines, or any HTTP client — and receive results as Spark or Pandas DataFrames via Apache Arrow streams.

Here's why this is a bigger deal than the announcement suggests:

→ 100+ connectors. Programmatically accessible.
→ On-premises and private network sources via gateway. No cloud-only limitation.
→ Billed through your existing Dataflow Gen2 meter. No surprise costs.

For data  analysts through to architects, this collapses a layer of complexity that's existed for years. 
The transformation logic you've already built in Power Query? 
It's now reusable infrastructure, not a locked-in dataflow artefact.

Read the full breakdown in this week's Microsoft AI & Data newsletter.

Power Query just became a programmable compute engine. If you're still treating it as a point-and-click transformation tool, you're already behind. TH

Open article: Unleashing Power Query: Programmatic Execution in Fabric by Leon Gordon • 2 min read

Unleashing Power Query: Programmatic Execution in Fabric

Boards have stopped asking "How do we build an LLM?"

The question now is "How do we protect the enterprise from the commercial and legal risks of a black-box AI rollout?"

That shift has changed what organisations actually need from their most senior AI hires. The era of the AI project manager is ending. What's replacing it is something closer to stewardship, someone accountable for making AI governance, architecture, and commercial outcomes work together at board level.

I've spent the last 12 months doing exactly this. Architecting sovereign infrastructure across 200TB+ data estates, calibrating my methodology through Oxford Saïd Business School, and helping enterprises move from proof of concept to production-scale impact.

I'm now opening conversations for Q2/Q3.

Specifically, I'm looking for a Principal AI Architecture or Head of Practice role with a global enterprise or Tier 1 consultancy that's ready to move past the hype phase into governed, scalable AI delivery.

The kind of mandate where:

→ POCs actually reach production and hit EBITDA targets
→ Agentic systems are architected for complex, regulated data estates
→ The gap between technical AI delivery and board-level risk is someone's actual job

If that sounds like a conversation worth having, message me directly.

#AIStrategy #EnterpriseAI #DataArchitecture #MicrosoftFabric #OxfordAI

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96% of executives expect a rise in AI investment over the next five years.

Only 1% of organisations report mature deployment.

That gap isn't a technology problem. It's an architecture problem.

I wrote about this for Forbes Technology Council.

The pattern I keep seeing across enterprise implementations, teams racing to ship AI agents, copilots, and predictive features, then getting stuck in pilot purgatory. Dozens of proofs of concept. Few scaled solutions. No measurable productivity impact.

The root cause is almost always the same. AI gets deployed as a series of disconnected tools rather than being anchored in a coherent, governed architecture.

The organisations pulling ahead have flipped the sequence. Architecture first, then AI. Four layers:

→ Data & Integration (governed data products, event streams)
→ Control & Governance (security, lineage, policy enforcement)
→ AI Services (shared decisioning, agents, scoring models via APIs)
→ Experience (where AI actually meets customers and employees)

The result: deployment cycles compressed from 4-6 months to around 5 weeks. Each new use case reuses existing components. Incremental cost drops. Speed compounds.

Competitors can copy a use case. They can't copy the speed and confidence with which you ship the 10th or 20th.

That's the compounding advantage of intelligent architecture.

Is your AI strategy architecture-led, or are you still shipping first and governing later?

🔗 Full article in the comments.

#AI #DataArchitecture #EnterpriseAI #ForbesTechCouncil #MicrosoftFabric

Only 1% of organisations report mature AI deployment.

96% are increasing AI investment.

The gap between those two numbers isn't a technology problem. It's a governance problem.

The pattern I keep seeing across enterprise implementations: teams ship a model into production without mapping lineage from source to inference. The model misbehaves. The diagnostic process starts from zero. Weeks of rework that proper governance would have eliminated before the first deployment.

That's not moving fast. That's iterating blind.

The uncomfortable truth most AI strategies ignore: governance isn't the brake on innovation. It's the prerequisite for sustainable speed.

Without it, every new use case is built from scratch. With it, your 10th deployment is faster than your 2nd, because the foundation compounds.

The organisations winning at AI aren't shipping fastest. They're shipping what they can operationalise, monitor, and iterate on without rebuilding the foundation every quarter.

That's not compliance. That's architecture.

#AIStrategy #AIGovernance #EnterpriseAI #DataArchitecture #MicrosoftFabric

WHY GOVERNANCE IS THE REAL AI ACCELERATOR

Az-Tec Talent

After a successful 4.5 years in recruitment I have founded my own business, Az-Tec Talent.

During my time in the industry I have noticed a flaw in the recruitment landscape, I consistently have seen and heard recruiters resourcing for roles where they have absolutely no clue what the candidates they are placing are doing on a day to day and have very little understanding of the technical requirements outside of a few key words.

This is what I am looking to change, at Az-Tec we are certified in the technologies we recruit for, which gives confidence to our candidates and clients that they are working with a recruiter that has an in-depth understanding of needs on both sides.

Our specialist networks built up over many years give us the confidence to deliver great talent, on a contract and permanent basis for businesses that are utilizing the latest Azure Cloud technologies across Infrastructure, Data, Software Development and Business Change.

Find out more here: https://www.az-tec.cloud/

Founder & Director

Azzurro Associates

In my role as a Data Engineer at Azzurro Associates I am leveraging modern data platform technologies including Azure Databricks, Azure Data Factory, Azure DevOps PySpark and SparkSQL to build ETL pipelines, reports and ingest data from external sources.

Currently the projects I am involved with include: Helping to implement Purview for Data Governance across Azzurro's Data estate, introducing sensitivity labels and rules etc, Moving to a new normalized data model, switching on/using Unity Catalogue, and an API Build to streamline the ingestion of data from external sources.

Data Engineer

Billigence

Ad-Hoc support for the internal talent team at Billigence via Az-Tec Talent whilst the internal talent manager is on extended leave.

Talent Aquisition Partner

Orbition Group

As the Head of Project Solutions at Orbition, I am dedicated to partnering with our clients to ensure seamless execution of our Project Solutions portfolio, encompassing temporary contract hires, statement of work engagements, and comprehensive team assemblies.

dr@orbitiongroup.com

https://orbitiongroup.com/

Head of Project Solutions

Venturi

Senior Cloud Data and Analytics Consultant

Cloud Data & Analytics Consultant

Helping connect London's Top Data Talent at Venturi ltd - The UK's Fastest Growing Tech Agency

Our approach is unique, innovative and thorough always with strong emphasis on looking at the long-term in the way that we build and retain relationships.

www.venturi-group.com.

BI, Data Platform & Analytics Specialties: 
> SQL Server 2000 - 2017
> SQL Azure, Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake, Stream Analytics, Cortana Suite, CosmosDB, Azure Analysis Services.
> Microsoft BI - SSIS/SSRS/SSAS/Performance Suite
> PowerBI (PowerPivot/PowerView/PowerQuery/PowerMap)
> Master Data Management (MDM/MDS)
> QlikView / Tableau
> Big Data / Analytics / Insight Analysis / Data Science / NoSQL R, MongoDB, Tableau, Hadoop, R, Python, Apache, Spark, Kakfa, Scala, Spark, Python,
> ML & IoT

If you are currently looking for your next opportunity in IT contracting or, alternatively, if you are looking to hire, please do not hesitate to contact me on deren.ridley@venturi-group.com or 020 313 7005.

Outside of work I have a wide range of interests. I enjoy playing Ice Hockey as well as being an avid Sports Car enthusiast, I am also very interested in computer technology and enjoy building and maintaining my own PCs

Cloud Data & Analytics Associate

During my first Year at Venturi, I worked as a Client Delivery consultant Resourcing Contract positions for Key Accounts, During this time I built up a strong network of Candidates that allowed me to deliver in my next position as a 360 Consultant.

Client Delivery Consultant (Data & Analytics)

USW Clothing

Co-Founder

As the Founder & Director of Az-Tec Talent, I am dedicated to partnering with our clients to ensure seamless execution of our Talent Solutions portfolio, encompassing temporary contract hires, permanent hires and comprehensive team assemblies.

With a commitment to excellence, I have a consistent track record of success over the past half-decade, offering agile project resource solutions that span the spectrum – from single contractors addressing urgent requirements to the orchestration of full-scale cloud project teams.

Whether your organization is currently planning a cloud transformation, data & analytics project or seeking expert guidance, I am eager to connect with you. Let's explore how Az-Tec Talent’s expertise can ensure your project suceeds.

Feel free to reach out to me at dr@az-tec.cloud to connect.

Discover more here - https://www.az-tec.cloud

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Leon Gordon's LinkedIn Performance

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