Chris Gartside, director of data and analytics, Pepsico Europe

Describe your career to date

I’ve always been interested in how consumers behave and how businesses can influence that behaviour for the better. After graduating with a Master’s in Chemistry, clear that chemistry was not my final destination, I began exploring the graduate job market looking for opportunities to convert my interests into a career.

During this time I was introduced to Dunnhumby and they wowed me from the beginning with an exciting and unique combination of data, analytics, and an opportunity to be part of a revolution looking to influence consumer behaviour. It also helped that this was a career that my mum could almost get her head around.

During 13 years with Dunnhumby I was lucky enough to work with a fantastic, intelligent and challenging selection of people, both colleagues and clients across multiple markets, sectors and verticals. Within that ecosystem I took the opportunity to constantly develop and learn, both in the commercial world and the data world. A combination of constant learning and seeing my work being turned into real world activation kept me engaged for a long period.

Post Dunnhumby, I took a role as chief data scientist at Starcount, and used this opportunity to use data to drive change with new clients as well as go back to the small start-up mentality that I had enjoyed when I first joined Dunnhumby.

I’m now working at Pepsico within the Europe sector advanced analytics team, where we are landing and scaling data products into our business with great impact. Over the last 2.5 years we’ve accelerated rapidly from a nascent capability with potential value to an in-demand capability with multiple established and embedded products and a strong aligned roadmap to build and scale this success within Europe and globally.