Humand News
Meet the Speaker: Matt Roberts | Oxford Leaders in Tech
By Jamie Kennedy · 26 October 2026
Ahead of our next Oxford Leaders in Tech (OxLiT) event on Tuesday 27 October, we're delighted to introduce one of our guest speakers, Matt Roberts.
Matt has enjoyed an impressive career in technology, from starting out at IBM to becoming the first engineer at legal tech startup Clause, which was later acquired by DocuSign.
Now involved with the Accord Project, Matt is exploring how AI agents could change the way businesses negotiate, make and manage agreements.
At our upcoming event, Matt will be presenting "Have Your Agent Call My Agent: Making Agreements with Agents", sharing his thoughts on the future of AI and what it could mean for businesses and technology leaders.
We caught up with Matt ahead of the event to learn more about his career journey, the leaders who have inspired him, his approach to leadership and what excites him most about the future of technology.
Getting to Know Matt Roberts
- What first sparked your interest in technology?
Collecting disk magazines with my Dad in the 90s (PC Genius, I think!). We'd solve the puzzles and play the basic games, and we were careful never to miss an issue, because next month's disk wouldn't work without the last one. Later it was music: a keyboard, a 5-pin MIDI cable and endless hours of truly terrible synthesised instruments. Eventually I swapped that for web development and VB.NET, which was probably better for everyone's ears.
- How did you first get into the technology industry?
Coming out of a Computing degree at Oxford I had a pretty naive view of the 9-to-5 of writing code, so I joined the IBM grad scheme instead. I accidentally ended up in a sales role, which terrified me at first, but it taught me public speaking, how to build a business case and how to prototype quickly. Those turned out to be far more valuable than I expected. It also gave me broad exposure to lots of different parts of the industry and a huge range of technologies.
- What has been the biggest turning point in your career?
After seven years at IBM I got the itch, and left to become the first engineer at Clause, a tiny legal tech startup. Startup life was a huge accelerator. Alongside learning to be an engineering manager, I ran customer support, pre-sales, DevSecOps, compliance, IT and partnerships. Four years later Docusign acquired us, and I'd gone from writing my first lines of production code to leading the whole engineering team through an acquisition. Start-up life is not for everyone, but the timing worked out for me.
- Who has been the most inspirational leader you've worked with, and why?
Dan Selman, the former CTO at Clause. Dan taught me how to build a team culture, and gave me the space to make mistakes. One of my earliest lessons was that as a leader, my job isn't to make all the decisions. It's to create the environment where other people can make great decisions themselves.
- What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
"So what?" It came from my sales training at IBM, and it's a really simple way to tailor your message and influence people in all sorts of situations. As technicians, our natural tendency is to lead with the what and the how, but leading with the why is much more powerful.
- What does being a great leader mean to you?
Being trusted. Trusted by the team to have their backs, and trusted by my bosses to deliver. That's been especially important leading a global team without the benefit of seeing each other in person every week. There are lots of ways to build trust, but it's always built slowly, and it takes integrity and empathy as well as delivering real business impact.
- What achievement are you most proud of?
Growing others and giving back. It's the cumulative effect of all the people you help to get a promotion, move into a new role or get a foothold in the industry. The dozens of early-career engineers I've mentored through Google Summer of Code, and the leads I've helped become managers, mean more to me than anything I've built myself.
- What advice would you give to someone starting their career in technology?
Learn about the business too. Code and tech experience come cheap now. Understand why your company and your industry are making the decisions they do, and follow a diverse set of leaders you admire. That'll help you make better decisions yourself, rather than waiting to be handed tasks.
- What development in technology excites you the most at the moment?
Practically, it's AI agents that can make, and keep, agreements on our behalf. That's what I'm building with the Accord Project, and what my talk is about. But what really excites me is the social side. When AI can write the code, the "brilliant jerk" loses their hold over a team, leadership skills start to matter much earlier in people's careers, and tech roles that used to be separate start to merge. There's a lot to be optimistic about.
- What's one thing about you that people might be surprised to learn?
I'm a trained military drill instructor. Don't worry, I keep the drill sergeant in check at work.
Join Us at Oxford Leaders in Tech
A big thank you to Matt for sharing his experiences and insights with us.
We're looking forward to hearing more from him at our next Oxford Leaders in Tech event and bringing together Oxfordshire's technology community for another evening of interesting talks, conversations and networking.
https://humand.co.uk/events/oxlit-oxford-leaders-in-tech-october
