Richard Davis, Chief Data Officer, Ofcom

Describe your career to date

I currently work as the Chief Data Officer in Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator. Ofcom has a large regulatory remit covering the full range of communications including public sector broadcast, radio spectrum licensing, telecoms, infrastructure resilience and security, and recently added online safety to its powers. 

As Ofcom’s senior data leader, I am responsible for enabling data to deliver a positive change across all of these sectors. Preparing Ofcom for the future by ensuring we have the latest technology, use the most up-to-date analytical methods, and scale our systems to support all policy and operations teams to have the insights and data needed to make data-driven decisions. 

To ensure the best decisions are made, I support Ofcom’s teams to have the skills and capabilities to understand data. As head of the data profession, I support Ofcom’s data people to develop their careers and ensure they have the technical training to realise their ambitions. 

Overall, my focus is on strengthening capability and governance to provide Ofcom with the people, tools, and mindset to achieve more with data. With the addition of online safety to Ofcom’s remit, this data capability has become ever more important. I am responsible for enabling the team to have the data to monitor the systems and processes of up to 4 million platforms in scope of the regime, with real time artificial intelligence (AI) to support the teams with trending information.

Before Ofcom, I worked for Lloyds Banking Group where I was the Group Head of Analytics. I had led the innovation function and then, in my final role, was the Managing Director for Data Products, enabling the commercialisation of Lloyds’ data assets. In this role I delivered over 100 data products with advanced analytics capabilities for fraud detection, credit risk analysis, and cyber threats.

My academic background is in applied mathematics and statistics. I have used advanced methods for multivariate statistics, machine learning, time series analytics, and data preprocessing methods such as wavelets in applications as diverse as economics, ecology, biochemistry, quantitative trading, portfolio optimisation, financial risk management, marketing, and telecommunications regulation.

I am a world leader in data, AI, and machine learning (ML). Having been keynote speaker at a number of international conferences, advised governments and international bodies on data strategy, applications of AI, and methods for standards and risk prevention in ML systems. I sit on the leadership group for the Scottish AI Alliance and was recognised as AI Implementor of the Year 2023 at the AI Summit.