Lester Berry, director of analytics and data science, John Lewis Partnership

Describe your career to date 

I have been lucky so far, working for several great companies, across various sectors and with some brilliant people. Getting out of bed in the morning has never been a problem.

My first role, all those years ago, was as an operational research analyst for British Airways (including staff travel perks). I knew very quickly that I was in the right career because solving the analytical problems didn’t often feel like work. For example, British Airways had about 250 aeroplanes, the question was “Where should they fly?”

From BA, I moved to Lloyds Banking Group, then onto British Gas and now the John Lewis Partnership, with shorter spells at Marks & Spencer and Telewest in between. Although I have worked in many sectors, the common thread is my focus on bridging the gap between analysts and business decision makers. Doing analysis and data science is one thing, but any advanced analytics team adds most value by improving decision making and that’s what motivates me.

My current role at the John Lewis Partnership is perfect. There are many challenges to overcome, but with the pace of retail, stiff competition, the partnership ethos and a great team, life is never dull. 

In 2023, I’m looking forward to taking the analytical capability to the next level. As an organisation, we are investing heavily in analytics and my role is to ensure the profession plays a major part in helping the partnership to recover – it’s a huge opportunity.