This is a profile from the 2022 version of the DataIQ 100.
The latest list is available here.
5. Wade Munsie, global chief data officer, GSK Consumer Healthcare
What has been your path to power?
Over 20 years ago, I started my data career as an analyst with British Telecom. Back then, data analysis consisted of some SQL, VBA and lots of Excel.It is there, though, that I realised that I had a knack at spinning data sets around and finding insights out of them. I guess that’s where it all started.I moved on from there to the movie industry with global director roles in both Warner Bros and Sony Pictures where I got to understand what drives consumer behaviour and what drives business performance.
In 2014, I joined Royal Mail where I had the opportunity to transform a traditional organisation from spreadsheets to advanced analytics and insight. I redefined the operating model, introduce advanced analytics and data science and built a full end-to-end data function while attaining the chief data officer role along the way. Here, I was able to build an amazing data team of scientists, engineers, analysts and a program team to deliver full stack data innovation to the business.
In 2019, I decided to follow the vision of an amazing leadership team at GSK and join part of something special. The UK’s biggest de-merger in history and the opportunity to be part of a new FTSE 100 company. I joined as chief data officer with a blank canvas to build a modern data function from scratch. In the past two years, we have grown to well over 100, delivered a data strategy, delivered enterprise data governance, an innovation team delivering 10x ROI, a data science team that any company would be proud of, and several multi-million-pound transformation programmes.
What impact has the pandemic had on the role of data in your company/organisation?
As a healthcare organisation, the pandemic has had several positive impacts on data here. Firstly, through the need for public safely, people have been more willing to share their information than before. This has provided us with richer data sets to understand the impacts of the pandemic on our patients and consumers as well as contribute to wider external studies. Secondly, because the pandemic has thrown basic planning and forecasts into chaos, the need for more advanced statistical modelling has meant that demand on our data science capability has never been stronger.
Does data now have a seat at the table during strategic discussions? If not, what will it take to get it there?
We’re getting there. I don’t sit at the “big” table just yet, though my team and I do provide a lot of insights and data for strategic discussions. Our support for environmental, social and governance (ESG), data literacy and AI will mean that the need for our skills and opinion will only accelerate over time.
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