Ramneet Julka, head of big data and AI, UK, Vodafone

At the time of compiling the list and writing this article, Ramneet Julka was group head of data science, financial crime compliance at HSBC Bank

What has been your path to power?

After an MBA from the leading Indian management institute (IIM-Bangalore), I joined Standard Chartered Bank as a management trainee. After multiple rotations, I was intrigued how data could power and shape business decisions and that started my analytics career. When I moved to London, I joined American Express and Barclaycard in roles where I led design and delivery of risk mitigation across the customer lifecycle. I then stepped into senior leadership roles with HSBC and Barclays where I have led high impact transformational programmes and successfully unlocked commercial value from data, while remaining passionate about improving customer and colleague experiences.

I am an evangelist on the power of data science driving exponential business impact. This impact is dually powered through firstly, actively influencing senior executives and working collaboratively with matrixed teams across large organisations, and secondly, through technical expertise in enterprise data, data science and emerging technologies. Also, this delivery is grounded with expertise in data privacy, risk governance and controls, regulatory landscape and relations.

Finally, success is enabled by leading high-performing and inspired, cross-functional and multi-site large teams (Ie, analytics centres of excellence). I remain personally passionate about investing in people and building out both data scientists and bi-lingual data consultants.