Miriam Vizvary is Chief Data and Analytics Officer at RS Group, with a career spanning the full evolution of data from niche technical capability to a core driver of business strategy. She began her career as a data analyst at a software vendor, learning ETL development and spending over a decade building and managing data warehouses, primarily within commercial insurance organisations in the City. These early years gave her deep, hands-on expertise in how data is organised, moved, governed and consumed.
As her career progressed, Miriam moved from coding into project and programme management, leading complex data warehousing initiatives before stepping fully into data leadership roles. Her experience has since broadened across sectors including media, utilities and automotive, reinforcing her belief that data expertise alone is not enough. Effective data leadership, in her view, requires the ability to align data capability to business strategy and to lead organisations and teams through sustained change.
A defining part of Miriam’s journey has been learning to let go of operational detail in order to focus on long-term direction. Over time, she developed a clearer view of the future of data and how to take organisations on a meaningful data journey, recognising that progress is often incremental and outcomes can be subtle rather than immediate.
Miriam is deeply passionate about the art of the possible with data, data science and AI. She is particularly focused on balancing the adoption of modern data platforms and AI with the careful retirement of legacy technologies, ensuring continuity while enabling innovation. Her leadership reflects a long-term, patient approach to building data capability that delivers lasting business value.
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?
“Data is one of the fastest changing functions in any business these days. The amount of new tech, new regulation and new skills that people need to learn makes this area very challenging. For this reason, I think the skill that is hugely important now and in the next five years is strategic thinking and strategic leadership. Being able to balance legacy estates with ever-increasing demand for AI is tough and will continuously create tension between what the business takes for granted and what they want. They will take legacy systems, dashboards and reports for granted, but those still need maintenance, whilst the business demands AI and innovation.
“On top of this, supporting your legacy estates is becoming increasingly tougher with fewer skills available in the market and everyone gravitating towards AI and new tools. How you make resourcing and financial decisions between the legacy and innovation, and how you prioritise to achieve your strategic goals matters most to be an effective data and AI leader.”
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?
“Early on in my career I didn’t appreciate that no one’s career is a straight line up. There will be ups and downs, there will be times when you feel like you have failed or you feel like you will never get there. My advice is to surround yourself with people who believe in you and even when you have a setback, they continue to encourage you.
“Most importantly learn from every set back, be brutally honest with yourself, be open minded and carry on your journey. Invest time in your connections and your learnings. Take time to attend conferences, roundtables as you can learn so much from these events not just technical knowledge but leadership skills and strategic thinking too. DataIQ is great for this!”
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