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Steve Pimblett, Chief Data Officer, The Very Group

Describe your career to date

 

My Chief Data Officer journey began with a BsC in Applied Statistics and Computing, in my hometown of Liverpool. From that point, I was motivated by the application of data and technology to drive commercial value and customer experiences. As General Manager of Data at Moneysupermarket.com, I helped the nation save millions on their household bills and it was then that I formulated my Data Insight Action (DNA) strategy.

I progressed to take the overseas position of Chief Data Officer for Betsson.com, one of the largest online gambling companies on the Nasdaq. There, I was able to develop my interest in digital and customer experience, while continuing with a data focus. Additionally, I developed my understanding of the complex trading dynamics and multi-country, currency, and language complexities of a multinational.

Returning to the UK as Chief Data Officer for wejo.com, I immersed myself into cloud/SaaS environments and IoT at scale, turning 0.5 trillion messages directly from connected cars into data and analytical products that save lives, as well as reducing congestion and emissions.

Finally, as Chief Data Officer at The Very Group I am able to rewrite retail, with a mission to provide the most personalised digital financial and retail experience in the UK. Focusing on strategy and vision, we will implement and embed DNA to create value, drive collaboration, and engage our internal and external customers.

Data literacy is a key enabler of the value and impact from data. How are you approaching this within your organisation?

 

At The Very Group, we operate a hub-and-spoke model for our data and analytics capabilities. The hubs are centres of excellence mastering their particular discipline (such as data engineering or data science) and the spokes are the business domains and units where we deploy and leverage the capabilities. 

 

Our data literacy model is to educate and grow both the hubs, through certified professional schemes, and educate the spokes through both on the job training and data stewardship programmes.

What stage has your organisation reached on its data maturity journey?
We have an audited data maturity and value model for our four data strategy pillars: data, insight, action, trust, where value and maturity is measured as Value= (D+N+A+T)*(A).

 

We have more than doubled our maturity score over the last few years, with highlights being
new Lakehouse architecture, a focus on Selfserve BI and Scaled AI, connecting our single customer view to business decisions/actions, and data cataloguing to drive trust. The maturity score is one of our main objectives and key results.

Steve Pimblett
has been included in:
  • 100 Brands 2021 (EMEA)
  • 100 Brands 2023 (EMEA)
  • 100 Brands 2024 (EMEA)
  • No. 4 100 Brands 2022 (EMEA)

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