Chrissie Kemp is Chief Data and AI Officer at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), where she leads the organisation’s data, analytics, intelligent automation and AI agenda across its global brand portfolio, including Jaguar, Range Rover, Defender, and Discovery.
She brings more than 20 years of executive experience spanning investment banking, entrepreneurship and large-scale industrial and automotive organisations. Chrissie began her career in investment banking and later launched an e-commerce business, before finding her professional focus at the intersection of technology and data at Rolls-Royce plc. There, she worked across Civil Aerospace, Defence Aerospace, Marine and Nuclear, helping extend data-driven service models beyond aerospace into new industries. Her time at Rolls-Royce included international assignments in Germany and Singapore and a pivotal role working directly for the Chief Operating Officer, providing early exposure to board-level decision-making in a PLC environment.
Chrissie joined JLR to help catalyse enterprise-wide digital transformation. She has built an award-winning data, AI and intelligent automation capability that has delivered more than £400 million in value while developing a diverse pipeline of next-generation data leaders. Her teams have been recognised with multiple DataIQ Awards, including Best Data Analytics Team, Becoming Data Literate, and Persuading with Data.
Known for combining commercial insight with deep expertise in AI, automation and data-driven product innovation, Chrissie plays a central role in shaping JLR’s broader digital strategy. Her leadership focuses on embedding data and AI into core business processes to deliver sustainable impact across global markets.
As a data and AI leader, which traits and skills do you think matter most, and which of those have been most influential for you in your current position?
“The three C’s: curiosity, courage, and commercial acumen. This is an area where you need to be continuously humble and are a constant student as the filed is evolving so rapidly!
“Curiosity to learn and ask why and explore how new developments in data and AI can be adopted and applied is very important. Given the significance of the impact of the field, it is also vital to have the courage to test new use cases and fail fast and go again.
“Finally, regardless of the amount of courage and curiosity, if you don’t have commercial acumen and know how to translate data and AI capabilities into business value, you will fast become irrelevant and miss the opportunity to drive real business growth.”
Reflecting on your career, what is one non-traditional piece of advice (outside of technical skills) you would give to an aspiring data or AI leader aiming for the C-suite?
“Don’t be afraid of being out of your comfort zone because if you aren’t, you have probably stopped growing. Of course, ensure you have at least one senior mentor you can trust to be vulnerable with and who can coach you on the harder the days.
“Finally, I would remember the significance of paying forward that same mentoring role to the next generation.”