Gordon Jackson is Head of Data and Analytics Customer Data Products, NatWest, and his leadership has inspired his team to new levels of data-driven innovation and impressed the judges. Jackson’s leadership of a team of approximately 400 individuals across six core sites spanning three countries, has created a culture of excellence and innovation that have delivered a range of firsts for the organisation.
Staff feedback scores have continued to improve under Jackson’s leadership and the team has grown significantly. He has received the highest feedback scores of all data leaders in NatWest and double digits above the financial services norm. Jackson has shown particular strengths in purposeful leadership (92%), inclusion (96%), and engagement (93%).
The pinnacle of leadership
Jackson has demonstrated a remarkable ability to inspire, motivate, and unify teams towards a common goal. Operating in a landscape that embraces both remote-first and hybrid work models, he has effectively leveraged modern product approaches to cultivate an environment with collaboration and improvement at its core. Under his leadership, the team has thrived, harnessing the collective expertise to drive innovation and deliver exceptional results.
Jackson’s impact is evidenced by his pivotal role in spearheading the innovative development of Personalisation experiences for customers. His thought leadership and understanding on how to leverage data and technology to improve customer experience has been evidenced through some high impact and transformative initiatives:
- Led the organisation to have over 20 million helpful conversations with customers in 2023, increasing 50% year on year. With ambitious OKRs that are changing how an established bank thinks about engagement with customers.
- Launched an engagement platform that leverages data and insights to personalize messages across more than 37 channels to a vast customer base of around 19 million individuals, SMEs, and corporates.
- Pivoted and scaled an open banking fintech product to become a leading data product that is used to help customers manage their finances through helpful spending insights and budgeting tools. This has been critical to help customers through the challenges from increases in the cost of living. At an uncertain time, he provided clarity and direction to a highly skilled team that was at risk of redundancy, leading to rapidly and successfully scaling a 20,000-customer product to over 19 million customers.
- Setting up partnerships, particularly with AWS, ensuring his team were at the leading edge of innovation. Through an environment of co-creation, it has led to a number of firsts for the organisation: the first fully cloud-based team and the first generative AI use case.
- Leveraging his wealth of experience and expertise, Jackson has overseen the development and implementation of four main product and platform services, supported by 15 individual products and services. This intricate ecosystem stands as a testament to Jackson’s strategic foresight and unwavering commitment to driving technological advancement supporting the organisation’s people and customers.
Under Jackson’s leadership, the team has undergone a transformative journey. Through his pursuit of excellence and willingness to improve ways of working, Jackson has created a modern, product-based model, with continuous improvement at its core. The core data team has grown from around 150 to 400, by bringing in new teams and adjusting the operating model to maintain focus on what is important to NatWest’s customers.
It was noted that Jackson is adept at defining and setting long-term strategy, purpose and goals, drawing on advanced analytical and strategic thinking. He has helped create an environment that supports constructive challenge within teams, peers, and stakeholders. He sets the expectation that all bank-level decisions are supported by robust data and logic, detailing implications and risks, and role models this for all.
Jackson’s unwavering dedication to inclusion ensures that every member of the team – regardless of location, role type, or experience – feels valued and empowered to contribute meaningfully. His emphasis on sustainable banking includes data for good partnerships which allows his team to support initiatives including helping local authorities understand the financial health and needs within their area and creating tools that help customers understand and make changes to reduce the climate impact.
Gordan Jackson has a rare blend of leadership skills – visionary insight, strategic acumen, data and personalisation expertise, and unwavering integrity. His transformative leadership has propelled the NatWest team to new levels of innovation and delivery, while fostering a culture of inclusivity.
