Eleni Kotzampasaki, senior analytical manager, Aquila Insight
Who is she?
Eleni joined Aquila Insight three years ago, having been a statistician within the NHS. Frustrated with having her skills underutilised, she was looking for a challenge. Recognising that its most important asset is its people, the analytics consultancy has transformed its culture to create a place that people were excited to go to work in, where challenges and development would be a constant, while building a friendly, open, collaborative, supportive and career-defining business.
Since joining, Eleni has become a senior analytical manager and is described by the consultancy as a “superstar”. Her passion for statistics is combined with strong communications skills – “a true data storyteller” – as well as an ability to drive change within the clients she works with.
What does she do?
Clients regularly ask for Eleni to be their account lead, while other analysts want to work on her team. For one big client in particular she reports directly to the head of strategy, working on the design and operational delivery of a customer distribution solution.
For this, Eleni designed a raft of predictive models which were combined in order to define the stategy. Scenario planning was applied on top to optimise distribution as the parameters of the models were tuned. This involved a combination of strategic data and technology. She also led the strategic customer segmentation analysis, translating the outputs from complex customer analysis for senior stakeholders, becoming a trusted advisor to the client while leading a blended team of consultancy and bank staff.
Eleni had already delivered analytical solutions for the bank which had a significant impact, from customer value and customer lifecycle modelling with the potential to deliver multi-million pound cumulative income growth, through pricing optimisation on personal loans and remediation analytics – this blend of compliance and optimised strategy had the biggest overall cost-benefit.
She has built her skills set further through involvement with the design of analytical applications, working with data engineers and software developers to build new products and solutions. Alongside her day-to-day work as an analytics leader, Eleni has also built her profile as an industry figure, speaking at key events to inspire other analysts with her own journey. As well as positive feedback, 15 job applications to Aquila directly referenced her presentation.
Aquila views Eleni as one of its “true superstars” and sees in her all the traits necessary for leadership. As well as her already impressive track record of delivering analytical solutions that benefit clients, she also mentors and inspires those around her.
What did the judges say?
The purpose of the New Talent Award is to find data and analytics practitioners under the age of 30 who are on the fast track to leadership. Eleni was a clear winner for her combination of enthusiasm, skill and commitment. Having made the move from public to private sector, she has clearly thrived and the judges are keen to see what impact she will make for Aquila Insight in the future.