Steven Wyer, chief data and analytics officer, The Crown Estate

Describe your career to date

My career has been heavily influenced by building analytical muscle memory in my stellar first role, driven by entrepreneurial thinking and collaboration and deliberate role changes to acquire deep expertise across a range of data topics. I am also lucky that I feel calmer internally when the world around me is in chaos; very helpful for transformation.

My first job was as a data analyst in a start-up culture. With the opportunity to work where I saw most value for my skills, I became immersed in operations, finance, technology and business strategy. My goal was to operate as a point of integration and lead through change, with a practical view of how to be successful in complex organisations.

Taking on management roles offered the opportunity of building success through a great team. I’d learnt that having an interested and empathetic manager and a great support network really helps, and was determined to ensure my team felt the same. Those are still vital ingredients for my own professional (and personal) wellbeing.

I moved into organisational transformation, leading the overhaul or uplift of data capability. I have built and led data teams (15 to 1,500 people), often from scratch, across EMEA and APAC (having also relocated internationally three times) and delivered numerous enterprise programmes, frequently under the scrutiny of the regulators (APRA, FSA, Federal Reserve) as well as ambitious business cases. I have worked across financial services, consultancy, telco, FMCG and property, and that diversity of thinking and experience has proven invaluable.

I am fortunate to have worked with world-class teams, creating game changing capability within some of the world’s largest organisations. I like to pass on that experience to fast track the success of others wherever I can, and I do that through a range of volunteering roles.