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Steven Green, Chief Data Officer, EMEA, SMBC

Steven Green, Chief Data Officer, EMEA, SMBC

Describe your career to date

I come from a large working-class family in Birmingham, being the first to stay in education post-16 (out of around 200), and so stepping into the office world was both daunting and exciting. I spent time temping in IT to learn the basics and quickly become an experienced IT support person. I then started working on transformation in large organisations; designing IT functions, transforming business processes, and leading large programmes of work across the NHS, BNP Paribas, Xerox, European Medicines Agency, and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA): £100m-plus programmes and 100s of staff across dozens of projects.

I have spent quite a bit of time working on data projects, particularly in the NHS and at Xerox (where I helped set-up their European Business Data function), but the biggest movement into data was at the FCA, where as part of their senior leadership team, I became Chief Data Officer and created their 2019 data strategy. My role covered how the FCA used data both internally and externally to transform the way we supervised firms. I also worked with dozens of international regulators to support them on their data strategies and how to become more innovative and was also the UK data lead at the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). A lot of great (and fun) work was done during my time at the FCA, with a superb wider team and really impressive group of colleagues, and it culminated with the US Association for Innovative Regulation declaring us the most innovative regulator in the world in 2020.

Programmes like Digital Regulatory Reporting (DRR) and Transforming Data Collection (TDC) were started while I was leading the Data Office, and the progress made was critical in giving the FCA the right tools and skills to pivot when the pandemic hit. The response was faster than any other financial services regulator and was lauded across the industry.

After four years, I left the FCA to transform the way data is managed and used within Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) across all banking lines for all countries in EMEA. As the first hire, I have built a new data office from scratch and created teams to lead in data analytics, architecture, governance, migration, and information governance. This has included a new data governance framework and Collibra toolset, as well as a new Data Hub platform and Master Data Management service alongside great advances in the way we deliver analytics.

Ultimately, I want to inspire a new data-led culture and the team are working hard to ensure data-led business transformation is front and centre in business strategy for the coming years. To support this, I sit on most of the strategic business programme steering groups, and my role is now critical in driving change across most of what we do.

I also won the A-Team Award (industry nominated by editors across Europe) as the Best European Data Management Professional in 2022. This was a surprise as I did not know I had been nominated, but reflects well I think on the teams I have had around me.

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

As an organisation we began looking at data literacy about a year ago as we started to build an organisation that could take the data strategy forward. This has led to a series of community groups being set up around data management and analytics, to make sure we have experts discussing activities and sharing knowledge.

On top of this we have been running showcases on subject areas, using both internal and external experts, to talk about best practice and what we have done, and reflecting upon what is possible by showing cool stuff and garnering enthusiasm through the organisation on what can be achieved by treating and using data differently.

We have also started building a training academy. We have introduced EMEA-wide basic training to uplift peoples’ knowledge and language, and started to encourage people to more widely engage in the data transformation programme, showing them why data and data governance is important and using videos, animation, and user stories to really bring the conversation to life.

This will be improved over the coming year as our new Data Culture Lead and Analytics Centre of Excellence Lead, will move forward with training and improved engagement for leadership, analysts, and data users. This will not only focus on functional skills, but also how to use data, and how to include data opportunities into business strategy. It will also get people thinking about how data can change the way they do their day job; fixing problems and supporting outcomes that their departments are working to achieve.

Have you set out a vision for data? If so, what is it aiming for and does it embrace the whole organisation or just the data function?

As an organisation, our data strategy is clearly for the whole of the organisation, not just for the data team. It reflects upon how we acquire, manage, and exploit data more effectively, and more efficiently, across every facet of the bank. Our job is to ensure the organisation is driven by data and that our decisions are made as effectively and efficiently as possible.

This involves us caring about data governance, getting everyone to want improved data quality, and making sure that we can exploit our data as easily and effectively as possible. If we do this well, it will show how we can understand our markets, clients, and resources better; how we can build a more sustainable client base and product offering; and how we become more efficient by automating large aspects of our process stack, whether via basic automation or more advanced data science and AI. This will ultimately ensure the bank saves money, controls its data better, and uses data to highlight and take advantage of opportunities for growth across our product range.

This requires us to deal with stakeholders across the bank, from regular meetings with the board members and the Chief Executive Officer, to ensuring we have engagement across all areas of front, middle, and back offices.

Steven Green
has been included in:

100 Brands 2024 (EMEA)