{"id":40407,"date":"2026-01-28T09:41:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T09:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/?post_type=100-alumni&p=40407"},"modified":"2026-02-04T14:35:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:35:48","slug":"murtz-daud-director-of-data-ai-british-gas","status":"publish","type":"100-alumni","link":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/dataiq100\/murtz-daud-director-of-data-ai-british-gas\/","title":{"rendered":"Murtz Daud, Director of Data & AI, British Gas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Murtz\u00a0Daud is Director of Data and AI at British Gas, where he leads the organisation\u2019s data and AI agenda with a focus on turning data into a strategic asset.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His career spans multiple industries, including finance, insurance, investment,\u00a0healthcare,\u00a0and energy. Across both hands-on technical roles and senior leadership positions,\u00a0Murtz\u00a0has\u00a0maintained\u00a0a consistent mission: enabling organisations to use data to drive efficiency, foster innovation and create measurable impact.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As he progressed into senior leadership,\u00a0Murtz\u00a0recognised that technical capability alone is rarely sufficient to deliver lasting change. His focus shifted towards building teams with\u00a0strong communication, curiosity and problem-solving skills, alongside deep technical\u00a0expertise. He is a strong advocate for developing data talent from within organisations, believing that colleagues with existing business knowledge and relationships are often best placed to\u00a0identify\u00a0high-value opportunities and deliver solutions that gain traction.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Murtz\u00a0describes his leadership style as combining the responsibilities of a Chief Data Officer with those of a Chief Adoption Officer. He places particular emphasis on culture, capability,\u00a0and engagement, ensuring data and AI solutions are not only built, but embedded and actively used across the business. Completing an Executive MBA further strengthened his perspective on data and AI as catalysts for enterprise-wide transformation rather than standalone technical functions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alongside his executive role,\u00a0Murtz\u00a0is committed to thought leadership and peer engagement. He actively networks with senior data and AI leaders, using these communities to stay close to emerging trends and to continually refine his approach to data-driven transformation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cEffective\u00a0data\u00a0and\u00a0AI leadership should be rooted in a relentless drive to deliver tangible outcomes. Leaders must be adept at translating strategy into actionable product portfolios, guided by clear business goals, so that value creation is always visible and continuous. In my experience,\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0always gained momentum in any future investment decisions when\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0made my achievements measurable.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA key quality is the ability to effectively balance the demand for immediate value vs long-term sustainable products. To support this, we must create an environment that encourages rapid and scalable innovation which integrates governance and ethics from the start. In more recent years, I believe leaders must also have the discipline to ensure AI hype does not dictate the solution. We have placed strong focus to fully investigate and understand the business problem first, and only then devise\u00a0an appropriate solution\u00a0to address that problem which maximises value.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA people-centric approach is equally important. Demonstrating emotional intelligence,\u00a0strong communication, and storytelling skills has enabled me to inspire and guide teams and stakeholders through the\u00a0data\u00a0and\u00a0AI transformation journey. This must be underpinned by ongoing investment in improving Data and AI Fluency across the organisation, building culture where data-driven change is embraced at every level.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cFocus on people and outcomes, not data!\u00a0The hard truth is\u00a0that\u00a0nobody really cares about \u2018data\u2019 outside of data teams. Our stakeholders only really care about business outcomes and ensuring any\u00a0data\u00a0and\u00a0AI products are effectively adopted by their teams to achieve those outcomes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe most valuable thing to start with is to build trust and relationships. Data\u00a0and\u00a0AI are powerful, but they only create impact when people believe in them and use them. Start by\u00a0listening\u00a0and\u00a0understand what matters most to the business and the challenges teams face. Speak in their language, not in technical jargon. Show how\u00a0data\u00a0and\u00a0AI can make their lives easier, help them make better decisions, and achieve their goals. Celebrate small wins early\u00a0to build momentum and confidence.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve\u00a0always believed my role\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0just about analytics\u00a0and dashboards,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0about inspiring a culture where everyone sees\u00a0data\u00a0and\u00a0AI as an asset, not a burden or takeover. When people feel included and empowered,\u00a0they\u2019ll\u00a0champion our vision,\u00a0and that\u2019s when transformation truly happens.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Murtz\u00a0Daud is Director of Data and AI at British Gas, where he leads the organisation\u2019s data and AI agenda with a focus on turning data into a strategic asset.\u00a0 His career spans multiple industries, including finance, insurance, investment,\u00a0healthcare,\u00a0and energy. Across both hands-on technical roles and senior leadership positions,\u00a0Murtz\u00a0has\u00a0maintained\u00a0a consistent mission: enabling organisations to use data […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":40784,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"100-designation":[1454],"100-search-term":[1456],"class_list":["post-40407","100-alumni","type-100-alumni","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","100-designation-100-brands-2026-europe","100-search-term-2026-europe-brands"],"acf":{"sort":"","rank":"","forename":"Murtz","surname":"Daud","fullname":"Murtz Daud","jobtitle":"Director of Data & AI ","organisation":"British Gas ","introduction":"","content_2":"","content_3":"","content_4":"","100_thumbnail_image":40784,"affinoid":""},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-27 07:34:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"100-designation","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/100-alumni\/40407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/100-alumni"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/100-alumni"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40407"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/100-alumni\/40407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40785,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/100-alumni\/40407\/revisions\/40785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"100-designation","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/100-designation?post=40407"},{"taxonomy":"100-search-term","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/100-search-term?post=40407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}