Harvinder Atwal, chief data scientist, Moneysupermarket Group

What has been your path to power?

I’ve always been interested in how data can be used to improve decision-making and solve problems. After graduating, I decided to do a Masters in Operational Research (the sub-field of mathematics that deals with applying advanced analytical methods to improve decision-making) and the closest thing to data science at the time. The Master’s degree was a solid foundation for OR roles in the Government OR Service, APACS and British Airways, where I worked on diverse problems from building models to decide which aircraft to buy to coming up with fuel hedging strategies.

Unlike today, very few companies in the mid-2000s were interested in data so I decided to join one of the few that was, Lloyds Banking Group. LBG was my first experience of leading data-driven marketing and product development. My next position was at dunnhumby, pioneers of large-scale customer analytics, as insight director for Clubcard strategy using the wealth of basket and Clubcard data to drive customer loyalty for Tesco. Since leaving dunnhumby I have undertaken a variety of roles at Moneysupermarket Group that have included responsibility for data acquisition, data management, data governance, cloud and on-premise data platform management, data engineering, as well as business intelligence, product analytics, and data science.