Issi Saumtally, chief data officer, Cabinet Office

What has been your path to power?

I have been fortunate to have worked with some really brilliant people over the years, including DataIQ 100  alumni Gillian Tomlinson and Elaine Priest, alongside other award winners Evelyn Owenson and Nimisha Patel. All have had the same diligence and utter dedication to change and improvement and led with passion which I have tried to adopt and carry with me in my roles.

My path has been one from hands-on data analysis, data engineering, data quality, through to data architecture, master and reference data management, data governance and data analytics, to name but a few. I have learnt the practices first-hand having walked the hard miles in the roles and grown as a result of it. Understanding the issues first-hand has led to a better ability to create data policies, strategies and data delivery initiatives and adapt the approach to differing organisation’s needs.

It’s been a real pleasure to have worked for some great organisations and I have been really lucky to have worked with great people and have used the combination of that experience and learned knowledge alongside hard work and dedication to enable me to lead today.