Gary Goldberg is Chief Data Officer for Supply, Trading and Shipping at bp plc, where he is responsible for using data to enable business transformation across some of the organisation’s most commercially complex operations.
He began his career on a trading desk in the City of London with Jefferies, before moving into technology and change roles at Credit Suisse, London Clearing House, RBS, and BlueCrest Capital Management. That combination of trading and technology experience has shaped his approach to data leadership, giving him a practical understanding of both commercial decision-making and large-scale change.
Gary moved into Chief Data Officer roles in 2016 and joined bp in 2019. Since then, his focus has been on delivering a data strategy that supports business growth and operational efficiency. The strategy emphasises making data easy to publish, easy to consume and genuinely reusable, starting with strong data foundations and extending through culture, tooling, and capability.
Across his career, Gary’s emphasis has consistently been on business impact rather than technology for its own sake. In his current role, data is a means to an end: enabling insight, driving change and helping the Supply, Trading, and Shipping businesses operate more effectively at scale.
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?
“With both a business and technology background, I believe both of those skill sets have been useful, but not absolutely critical. I think the biggest trait of a data leader is the ability to deliver business change and cultural transformation and the willingness to be a positive disrupter.
“Deep business skills and technical skills can be added to any team. But the willingness to take chances, to show the business a different path and drive a data led culture – those are the skills that differentiate top data and AI leaders.”
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?
“Be respectful, but always speak the truth, and strive for a vision that inspires those around you.”