Nuala Kennedy-Preston, Chief Data Officer, People’s Postcode Lottery
Path to power I’ve had a long and varied career that has spanned all things data related. It’s been at the heart of every role and challenge that I’ve ever taken on. I’ve progressed through several different management positions within the world of data, insight and analysis. I get enormous satisfaction from mining an untapped […]
Peter Jackson, Group Director – Data Sciences, L&G
Path to power I started my career working in consultancy, designing and delivering data strategies and then I was head of data at The Pensions Regulator and chief data officer at Southern Water before taking up my current role. What is the proudest achievement of your career to date? To be the co-author of […]
Viktor Kazinec, Head of Analytics, Close Brothers
Path to power I studied finance at Loughborough University. After finishing my degree, I joined PwC’s Transaction Services’ graduate scheme in London in 2010, which was a great opportunity to work with private equity houses and management teams at a variety of UK businesses. In 2014, I joined Close Brothers as a strategic analyst, an […]
Barry Green, Interim Chief Data Officer, Allianz Partners
Path to power I started my career in Palmerston North at Bank of New Zealand. Since that first job I have undertaken many different roles and implemented various change programmes at a country, regional and global level. While I have been in banking for most of my career, I moved to PwC to help start […]
Ben Downe, Director of Decision Intelligence, BCA
Path to power I started off at Burger King in the North Terminal of Gatwick Airport during the summer holidays as a regular team member but ended up building a new database system to manage staff records. The first job after graduating in economics was at a boutique consulting firm called Diamond, which specialised in […]
Simon Hayter, Head of Data, Knight Frank
Path to power I was doing data analytics before it was the “cool job” that it is today, when the only tools available were MS Excel and Access. Early on in my career I worked for various retailers and also for an online company, where I was performing analysis for the front line sales directors. […]
Dawn Hemingway, Head of Data, NSPCC
Path to power Following a number of administrative roles, I fell into the data world as a quality assurance executive at an agency that eventually became part of Rapp. I stayed for 20 years, progressing through the ranks and leading on delivery, development, solution implementations, analytical and data planning projects as well as managing clients. […]
Denholm Hesse, Head of Data Analytics, M&G
Path to power At university I co-founded a small, not-for-profit consultancy, which offered local businesses support from management school students and, in return, students gained work experience. I enjoyed it so much, that after graduating I joined Deloitte as a consultant. While on my first project, my manager asked me if I could help out […]
Catherine Brien, Chief Data Officer, Guardian Media Group
Path to power I studied maths at university, in an era long before computing power had allowed data science to be a “thing”. It was a fantastic foundation in problem solving, and at the time I could only imagine the many applications and where it would take me. I went into management consulting and […]
Christopher Dean, Head of Data, Business Intelligence and Analytics, City Plumbing Supplies Holdings
Path to power Having started my career as an analyst over 12 years ago, I’ve held several different roles in a variety of industries but each new job has unlocked many skills and lessons learnt as I climbed the career ladder. The biggest skill that I gained when at EC Harris and McCormick is […]
Alan Cruickshank, Head of Data, Tails.com
Path to power My background is in the manufacturing industry, where I first started working with medium sized German firms to improve their output or productivity. This seemed like an obvious move at the time, having a degree in manufacturing engineering, where I was able to carry on the technical problem solving that I’d enjoyed […]
Ciara Bosworth, Head of CRM and Customer Data, British Heart Foundation
Path to power I started my data career at the National Deaf Children’s Society as a database assistant back in the early 2000s. Over the next few years, I worked at a number of charities and as a Blackbaud consultant on some fascinating projects, including the merger of ChildLine and the NSPCC. But I kept […]
Tamara Castelli, Vice-President, Data and Insight, UNiDAYS
Path to power I started my career on the graduate scheme at Capgemini Consulting as an associate consultant in the analytics team. During my time, I was promoted twice to a senior consultant. From there, I became insight manager at Channel 4 on a newly formed team to deliver data science solutions. I then went to […]
Tariq Bhatti, Head of Data and Analytics, Nursing & Midwifery Council
Path to power When I finished my degree at Westminster University, I actually wanted to be an Adobe Flash developer; fortunately, I have instead become a “dataholic” and got my first senior role as a data architect for the Royal British Legion. Since then, I’ve worked for Save The Children UK and at Southern Water […]
Eleanor Armiger, Head of Analytics, British Airways
Path to power BA is an iconic brand with a complex, global operation, and myriad opportunities to use analytics to drive evidence-based decisions. After securing a graduate role nearly 20 years ago, I’m still there and still loving it. My years in the operational research team were notable for their breadth of intellectual challenge. […]
Michelle de Souza, Chief Data Officer, Age UK
Path to power I started my data career at AGB (now Kantar TNS) with a wonderful job title of “special analysis assistant”, which of course didn’t reflect either the miniscule salary or the rather lowly duties that the role entailed. Naturally, I’m disappointed that since that time, no one has ever, in data terms, thought […]
Gael Decoudu, Director of Credit Decisioning, NewDay
Path to power I am a seasoned global leader in analytics and data science with more than 20 years’ experience. I have a solid track record of combining a strong business sense with analytical expertise and results focus to deliver significant value. I have demonstrated high adaptability throughout my career, having led several multi-cultural […]
Vlad Kaltenieks, Global Director of Data, Analytics and Digital, William Hill
Path to power My data and analytics journey began back in 2006, when I joined a City of London fintech start-up with an innovative web browser-based product. Harnessing the power of real-time data, it made exchange prices and fundamentals available at the fingertips for financial decision makers at the time when it often required dedicated […]
Ruth Spencer, Vice-President Global Insights, Walgreens Boots Alliance
Path to power I spent my first three years after university teaching physics in a comprehensive school and then joined Shell as an IT graduate trainee. After a few years learning my way round data and coding, I moved into database marketing – as insights was known way back then. I quickly realised this was […]
David Payne, Vice-President Client and Marketing Analytics, WorldPay
Path to power My involvement in data and analytics began at an online adventure travel start-up after leaving university. With only four people at the company, we all took on various roles and it fell to me to create and manage our fledgling customer database. This piqued my interest in data and, when the venture […]