David Castro-Gavino, global vice-president of data, HelloFresh SE

Describe your career to date

I have been in the technology sector for almost three decades and have worked alongside some of the best in the industry. My passion for data began during a placement at CACI when I was part of the data team that updated the Acorn classification with the 2001 Census data.

This was my first real data-related job, during which I gained a deeper understanding of the importance of being customer-centric, the power of data and how it enables us to achieve real business value. In the years since then, I have been fortunate that my career has allowed me to work on five continents and live on three of them.

My journey has taken me from the integration of Wegener DM and DLG data warehouses to working with Conchango on a myriad of industry verticals as a business intelligence consultant, to then helping set up HealthDialog Sanitas.

In 2011, I joined Dunnhumby where I spent nine years in a variety of technical and commercial roles that allowed me to travel the world, from implementing the data centre of excellence in India, building a team from the ground up to partnering with retailers and brands across the globe to leverage data, science and analytics into the centre of customer-focused decision making.

In 2020, after a short period at Booking.com, I joined HelloFresh to lead data globally and drive data maturity by providing frameworks, processes, technology and tools that govern collaboration between data producers and consumers. Ultimately, our mission is to change people’s eating forever by becoming data enabled.