Gregory (known as Greg) Lock is a British business executive and non-executive company Chairman. He spent 30 years with IBM, where he held senior international management roles, including global general manager for the Industrial Sector. He has also been involved in educational and charitable activities, particularly through Churchill College, Cambridge, and the Greg and Rosie Lock Foundation.
Lock was born in South Wales in 1947. His father was a primary school teacher who later became a headmaster, and his mother worked as an accounts clerk. He was educated at Tonyrefail Grammar School, where he was head boy and captained the school rugby and cricket teams. He also captained the Pontypridd and District Schools rugby XV. His sister, Barbara, later became head girl at the same school.
In 1966, Lock was admitted to Churchill College, University of Cambridge, no pupil from his school had hitherto won a place at Cambridge. He studied natural sciences and graduated with a Master of Arts. During his time at Cambridge, he represented his college in a number of sports particularly rugby, cricket, golf, and squash, and participated in productions with the college dramatic society. He was the Founding President of the Churchill Bulldogs sporting society. He played rugby many times for Cambridge University but missed a Blue. He also played first-class rugby for Penarth and toured twice with the Welsh Academicals.
Following Cambridge, Lock joined IBM as a trainee systems engineer. He progressed rapidly to become a very successful salesman and became one of the UK company’s youngest branch managers in the early 80s .In 1984, he was appointed assistant to the chairman of the IBM Corporation. He subsequently undertook a series of senior international assignments with increasing responsibility. His final role was Global General Manager for the industrial sector, with worldwide responsibility for IBM’s business with companies in the automotive, aerospace, electronics, chemical, petroleum, and other manufacturing industries. The unit accounted for approximately 15 percent of IBM’s global revenue, or about US$12 billion at the time. He served as a member of the Worldwide Management Council and as a governor of the IBM Academy of Technology. During his career, he lived and worked in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the United States. He retired from IBM in March 2000.
After retirement, Lock pursued a career as a non-executive Company Chairman. In 2002, he became executive chairman of Orchestream Holdings and oversaw the sale of the company in 2003. From 2003 to 2007, he served as chairman of SurfControl plc. He was chairman of Computacenter plc for 11 years until 2019, during which time the company’s revenues increased from approximately £2 billion to £4 billion. He was chairman of Kofax plc for seven years until 2015, during which the company moved its listing to Nasdaq and was later sold. He served as a non-executive director of United Business Media (UBM) and became chairman in 2018. Following the acquisition of UBM by Informa in 2019, he became deputy chairman of Informa. In 2020, he was appointed chairman of Micro Focus International plc and oversaw its sale in February 2023.
He has also held roles in education and charitable organisations. In the late 90s he served as a director of the UK Institute of Manufacturing. He is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, and has served on its development board for about 15 years, becoming Chairman of the board in the early 2020s. In 2002, he and his wife, Rosie Lock, established the Greg and Rosie Lock Foundation, a charitable trust focused on supporting educational opportunities for less advantaged individuals in science, technology, and sport. The foundation established the Lock bursary scheme at Churchill College and has supported organisations including Chance to Shine, the Welsh Academicals, and the Golf Foundation. In 2025, Greg and Rosie Lock were elected Winston Churchill Fellows at Churchill College. They have both been members of the Cambridge University Guild of Benefactors for the past 10 years or so.
In addition, Lock has been involved in rugby, cricket, and golf throughout his life. He is a member of the Hawks’ Club, the Marylebone Cricket Club, Cambridge University Rugby Union Football Club, the Hurlingham Club, and Royal Porthcawl, Woking, and North Wilts golf clubs. He is a vice president of the Welsh Academicals. He has served as chairman of All Cannings Cricket Club and is a trustee of the All Cannings Community Trust, where he lives. He is a life fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and a life member of the Royal Institution.