Lien Bailey, chief data officer, IPO UK

Describe your career to date 

I left university with a degree in Computer Information Systems Design (bit of a mouthful) but didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I did what any graduate would do, I applied for the most exciting company at the time – this was Diageo. I did this but felt something was missing. That’s when I found out about consulting - it would be the kick-start over two decades of working across private and public sector, as well as travelling across the world.

This has provided a breadth of experience which allows me to perform my current role. I am proud I started out as an Oracle developer and worked my way out of development to lead teams and then lead engagements in the diverse area of information and data. I was lucky enough to have plenty of experience in unstructured and structed data, this allows me to see problems through different lenses. 

The big change was when I moved from a consultant role to working as a client, this gave me the inside track on how the relationship of client and supplier should work to achieve common outcomes.