Daniel Hodgkiss, VP global data science, Ralph Lauren

Describe your career to date 

I began my career building customer RFM propensity models for a retailer only to eventually come full circle more than 20 years later to data science that, while almost infinitely more sophisticated, is fundamentally based on the same philosophy. 

I started at Arcadia Home Shopping in an era when we analysts could afford to set a programme running and have time to chat, go for lunch or go away for a long weekend, leaving the SAS to leisurely tick along through the hundreds of thousands of customer records to finally stutter to its conclusion, while praying one had not forgotten a vital semi-colon. 

Over the years I’ve had the absolute pleasure of helping some of the world’s largest brands, agencies, and consultancies to embrace data and analytics, and put the customer at the heart of decision making.

I have always tried to lead with empathy and pragmatism and build strong personal relationships, cutting through ambiguity and politics, to drive real change.

I am currently putting everything I have ever learned to good use at one of the world’s most iconic luxury brands and processor of a vast amount of data. I am building, mentoring and leading large teams of some of the industry’s most skilled individuals, and working on making sure Ralph Lauren remains and thrives as a customer-first leading global luxury brand.