Perspectives

Lennon reflects on steep summer of learning in data & AI

Data & AI

From digital marketing to AI data solutions, Lennon bridges tech and business strategy

AI & data intern Lennon Brown reflects on his time with Marex

As my summer internship at Marex comes to a close, I wanted to sit down and reflect on the past few months.

Coming into this role as an AI data intern working with Kai (Henderson), it’s covered such a broad spectrum of experiences and reshaped my outlook on what it takes to power a successful business. It’s been such a valuable piece of learning.

Subject switch

My path here hasn’t been the most traditional. After leaving Mackie Academy in Stonehaven, I went straight into a digital marketing degree at RGU. It was during the social media boom when TikTok was exploding but I quickly realised digital marketing was not quite for me.

However, I’ve always been someone who finishes what they start – and I’m not entirely sure my parents would have let me quit!

So when I graduated in 2024, I went off to Asia for seven months, travelling through Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, before coming home to decide what path my career would take.

It was when I started my Masters in IT and cyber security at the University of Aberdeen at the start of this year, I realised I’d returned to the technical and maths subjects I had always loved.

The Masters covers a year, with a summer break, so when Kai (head of AI & data at Marex) reached out on LinkedIn for a coffee and a chat, I jumped at the chance to get involved.

The best deep end

Walking into Marex was completely different from the internship stories you usually hear. Friends at massive firms have told me about sitting looking at emails for hours a day with little responsibility. At Marex, working alongside Kai, Wayne and Nicola, I was thrown straight into the deep end in the best way possible.

Because our new data and AI specialism operates almost like a start-up within the wider business, my day-to-day tasks have spanned the entire spectrum. These have included:

building client solutions: I created live data dashboards that interlink four separate platforms into a single "dashboard of dashboards", giving clients a direct view of their business metrics.
developing AI training: alongside Kai, I helped develop full AI training packages from scratch, building presentation slides, writing speaker notes and crafting live working demos.
driving outreach and growth: I spent hours on LinkedIn conducting targeted outreach, sending over 200 connection messages a week to generate leads and shape our business strategy.

In terms of the value brought to Marex, I feel I have helped turn abstract ideas into practical, commercial products. With my digital marketing background, it meant I could bridge the gap between heavy technical coding and actual business development. I could help define who we were selling to, as well as build the tools that clients interact with and prove that data solutions can deliver immediate, tangible impact.

Looking ahead, I am not ready to say goodbye just yet. I plan to continue working alongside Kai and the team while I complete the second half of my Masters.

Beyond that… who knows?

All I know is that my time here has given me a huge boost in confidence, invaluable practical experience and the perfect mix of technicality, responsibility and teamwork.

>> Find out more about Marex's data & Ai offering here.

Perspectives