In a nondescript government building in London, civil servants still wrestle with data silos that slow everything from rural policy modelling to classroom resource allocation. On 17 July 2026 Databricks announced it had brought in Lee Stockwell to change that equation as its new head of public sector for the UK and Ireland.
Stockwell carries more than two decades of experience that straddles the public and private worlds. He most recently ran the national security and public safety division at ServiceNow. Before that he spent more than eight years at the UK Home Office, where he led live services and shared services. Those roles placed him at the sharp end of delivering technology that actually works inside stretched public institutions.
His task now is to deepen partnerships with agencies including DEFRA, the Department for Education and VisitBritain. The brief is concrete: modernise data platforms, expand advanced analytics and scale AI adoption so that public services become more productive and policy decisions rest on firmer ground. No sweeping new regulations or expanded central directorates, just practical tools drawn from proven commercial platforms.
From Whitehall corridors to scalable AI
The appointment arrives as government departments face mounting pressure to show tangible results from their data and AI spending. Stockwell understands that pressure from the inside. He knows the cost of fragmented systems and the frustration when innovation stalls at the pilot stage.
I am proud to join Databricks at such a pivotal moment for public sector organisations across the UK and Ireland. Government departments can only accelerate their AI strategies if they have the right data foundations in place. Databricks enables public sector organisations to unify their data, govern AI, and build and deploy agents at scale.
Those words, from Stockwell himself, underscore a recurring theme. Real progress depends less on top-down mandates than on solid technical foundations that let departments move at pace while keeping governance intact. Databricks positions its platform as the means to democratise access to data and AI, letting organisations build trusted applications on their own contextual information rather than relying on opaque external models.
Samuel Bonamigo, Databricks’ senior vice president and general manager for EMEA, pointed to the fit. “Lee’s experience at the intersection of technology and the public sector will be critical as we increase our support to meet the growing needs of organisations across the UK and Ireland.” He added that agencies “are under real pressure to deliver tangible outcomes from their data and AI investments, and Lee brings the expertise and experience to help organisations advance these priorities.”
