This is a profile from the 2022 version of the DataIQ 100.
The latest list is available here.
Mehul B Shah, director of data, The Guardian News and Media
What has been your path to power?
It all started after graduating with a Computer Science degree in Australia. I started my career building a new data products suite, which has helped our client organisation to proactively monitor the health of their data assets. This data-driven product development experience at an early stage of my career really helped me relentlessly focus on identifying value opportunities using data.
Over the last 20 years, I have had various data roles across media, insurance and electronics sectors around the globe. It was quite fulfilling to be part of some amazing data journeys which had enabled successful transformation of these organisations. Few key milestones I will always cherish include when Acer became the number two laptop vendor in the world, when The Times newspaper turned profitable after over a decade of losses, and when BNP Paribas UK Insurance business turned around to start winning prestigious B2B partnership after nearly collapsing due to PPI losses and, finally, being listed in Data IQ 100 for the first time in 2021.
In 2021, I joined the Guardian as director of data as I’ve always admired The Guardian’s brand, its progressive perspective, global reach and unique ownership structure. The Guardian has a global reputation for holding power to account and championing the voices of those less heard, so it is quite important to develop a financially sustainable future built upon its values and principles. We are on an exciting data journey to enable these and to build a loyal relationship with our readers.
What impact has the pandemic had on the role of data in your company/organisation?
Since data is a key enabler of our overall business strategy, it has already had an important role to play but the pandemic has also helped to prioritise some data risk mitigation actions. It has helped to raise the profile of data governance and the role it plays, not only in identifying and mitigating some of the data risks but also creating business value by improving data literacy and data quality. The pandemic has reemphasised the importance of data visualisation of our news journalism product, for example our visualisation of pandemic numbers has been incredibly powerful.
Does data now have a seat at the table during strategic discussions? If not, what will it take to get it there?
Yes, it does have a seat at the table here at The Guardian during strategic discussions and it is getting great support from a wider set of leaders on the table. It is quite encouraging to see that it not only gets the attention it should but also more requests for it to be available across the business.
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