WOMEN IN DATA 2018

Elizabeth Truss was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury in June 2017 by Prime Minister Theresa May. Her role gives her responsibility for overseeing U.K. public expenditure, including public sector pay and spending reviews, as well as a broader purview on supply-side issues, including childcare policy, labour market policy, and welfare reform. A member of the Conservative Party, she was first elected as a Member of Parliament in 2010 for the constituency of South West Norfolk. She has held several important ministerial roles, including Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for education and childcare; Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor. Truss is a longtime friend of the liberty movement, having worked at the think tank Reform and having founded the Free Enterprise Group (an association of free market–oriented Conservative Members of Parliament) in 2011.

As Group Chief Data Officer at Sainsbury’s plc, Helen’s remit is to maximise the value of the Group’s data asset: democratising access and finding creative ways to unlock its insight potential in support of Sainsbury’s strategy to ‘know our customers better than anyone else’. Over the last 8 years at Sainsbury’s in roles including Director of Innovation, and Director of Data and Relationship Marketing, Helen has brought to bear her experience of navigating large organisations to develop products and propositions at the intersection of data, digital, technology, performance marketing and loyalty. These have included Sainsbury’s Brand Match and Sainsbury’s new Nectar. Helen thrives on solving problems and delivering innovation by building both products and people. Before joining Sainsbury’s, Helen held roles at emnos, Home Retail Group, Woolworths Group, and Kingfisher, having read modern history at Oxford. She lives in central London with two young children (6 and 2) and is a fan of skiing, sci-fi and European crime drama.

Dr. Johanna Hutchinson is Head of Data at The Pensions Regulator, where she has the responsibility for building a new data function to align data into the central functions of the organisation and build a data-driven regulator. In 2017 Johanna wrote HMRC’s Data Strategy, a document influential across Whitehall policy and has been prominent in embedding data quality and management at the heart of statistical production in government.  Johanna is an experienced data specialist with a history of encouraging best practice and innovation in data use across government. Previously Johanna had an active research and lecturing career in academia as a quantitative psychologist.

As Chief Data Officer for Transport for London (TfL), Lauren Sager Weinstein drives decision-making and improves customer services by providing the data tools and algorithms that TfL uses to plan and run the transport network. In a single day, TfL collects 19 million ticketing transactions, 4.5 million bus location events, and vast amounts of additional data.  Under Lauren’s leadership, her team of developers and data scientists transforms that flow of data into tools for action. Lauren has worked for TfL in various roles since 2002. Her projects have included contributing to the design and launch of the contactless payment system across London’s transport network, as well as analysis of travel patterns during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Recently, Lauren led TfL’s Wifi Connection Data Pilot, a ground-breaking analysis of travel patterns in the London Underground network. Lauren was named UK Chief Data Officer of the Year 2017 by the CDO Club, and was honored to be included in last year’s Female Lead’s list of 20 role models in Data & Technology.  Lauren is a founding member and on the Board of Women in Transport, which promotes women’s advancement in the transport industry.

A transformational global leader and innovative technologist, Jacky is a passionate ambassador for women and BAME in technology.

In late 2017, she became Chief Digital and Information Officer for HMRC, where she is responsible for driving one of the largest digitally-enabled transformations in Europe.

Jacky’s influence and interests extend to promoting the digital transformation of public services in the widest sense, as well as a number of social issues.

Jacky is patron of techUK’s Public Services Board (PSB), which champions opportunities for the UK tech industry to collaborate across government. She is partnering with techUK and other organisations to address social mobility by providing access to digital skills training for all.

A senior BAME Civil Service leader, HMRC’s Disability Champion and a member of the Civil Service Diverse Leadership Task Force, Jacky champions diversity across government and provides advice on the Civil Service’s strategy for improving BAME and disabled representation at all levels.

Jacky sits on various boards, including City, University of London, the Institute of Coding and YearUp, and works to promote equal opportunities and access to education for all. She has an honorary doctorate from Aston University, and has received many prestigious industry awards.

Tabitha is co-founder of CognitionX, an AI Advice Platform which connects organisations with a global network of AI experts. She is also Director of CogX, the Festival of AIl Things AI, which in June 2018 brought together over 300 speakers and 6,500 members of the AI community to discuss the Impact of AI. Alongside CognitionX, Tabitha is the AI & Data Business Champion and chair of the AI Council for the UK government, to champion a rapid and responsible adoption of AI. An advocate for increased diversity in the industry, Tabitha also set up Why Women in AI and Co-Founded Future Girl Corp. In 2008 Tabitha co-founded Rightster (now Brave Bison), the largest online video distribution company outside the US, and was part of the executive team that took the business to IPO 2011, with 250 people and offices in 11 countries

Yasmin Hinds qualified as a Solicitor in 2005 and is an expert in Data Protection. She spent several years as an in- house lawyer working with a number of well-known financial institutions. For the last 18 months, she was the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) Subject Matter Expert (SME) providing technical advice on the new Data Protection Legislation for a reputable investment bank. Yasmin has advised on Data Protection issues across banking, retail, telecommunications and technology. Her work includes assisting with privacy audits, compliance programmes and policy documentation. Yasmin is also a consultant at Data Currency, an online Data Protection platform. In the recent weeks, she joined Sopra Steria to strengthen the existing FS Consultancy business in Risk and Regulatory law. Applying her vast expertise on data related matters, she advises on gap analyses and global privacy projects, as well as undertaking privacy contract reviews, in addition to designing frameworks and implementing data governance. Yasmin also holds an Executive MBA, the Practitioner Certificate in Data Protection and a Diploma in Legal Management.

Juliette Scott is a Non Executive Board Member at HMRC and Versus Arthritis (formerly known as Arthritis Research UK) and has a number of advisory roles through her consultancy business. Juliette was previously at eBay. Firstly on the Board of eBay UK as the Director of Customer Insight and latterly was responsible for customer insight and analytics across Europe. Juliette was introduced into the world of data insight through her time at dunnhumby where she worked for over 7 years on all areas of the Tesco business. Juliette is passionate about helping organsiations grow their customer base and revenues through creation of financially impactful data insight and customer culture change. Prior to the data world, Juliette spent the first half of her career in various sales and marking roles in the media, fashion, and financial services worlds including running her own business.

Amanda Parker is a communications, public affairs and policy specialist working across the cultural and creative sectors, running engagement and awareness campaigns with a focus on widening access and participation. After a career in television and radio production, Amanda moved to campaigns management for the BBC, including working on the launch and recruitment for BBC Radio 1Xtra, and working with the BBC’s radio networks and orchestras on national music campaigns, winning an RTS award, two Webby awards and a CRE Race in the Media Award. As Head of Communications for Directors UK, Amanda wrote the organisation’s first report into the gender disparity in hiring television directors, leading to industry-wide change in TV drama hiring and training practices. Amanda is currently working with Parent in Performing Arts (PIPA). She also works with corporate clients and SMEs. Amanda is an Oxford University graduate, and a graduate of the BBC Leadership Programme at Ashridge Business School. She is a board member for Film London, where she sits on the working groups for Public Affairs and Audience Development, an RSA Fellow, and Chair of PIPA.

My career started with a role at a leading marketing agency in their analytics division. I soon discovered the power of data so it became a passion of mine. I’ve been fortunate to work across several sectors focusing on strategic planning, marketing analysis and database management projects. My role at Experian is across pre-sales, delivery and innovation giving me lots of variety. My primary focus is how we can use the power of data to inform marketing strategy and activation through the application of the right analytical technique whether that be complex machine learning techniques or a simple cross-tab. I’ve been involved in Women in Data since the first event in 2015. I’ve heard some inspirational women speak and been lucky to meet more at the event over the years. There’s clearly a lack of female role models working in the data industry. We still have an imbalance of men and women across our industry at all levels. Experian’s leadership team are working to address the balance in our organisation with family-friendly policies and by supporting events like Women in Data, which speaks volumes to me. Having two children, the family-friendly policies at Experian were pivotal to accepting my role.

Caroline has worked in the data and information industry profession for nearly 30 years. Caroline has enjoyed a wonderful and varied career working for multiple blue-chip companies across several Industry sectors (e.g. Consultancy, Retail, Utilities, Telecommunications and Public Sector) both here in the UK and Internationally.

Caroline is a passionate advocate of the “data profession” and has worked relentlessly to spotlight the importance and value of data capabilities. Caroline is also focused on promoting diversity at all levels, especially at senior leadership and boardroom.

Most recently, Caroline was (for 4 years) living and working in Germany, as Director of Business Intelligence, Central Analytics and Big Data for Vodafone Germany, the largest Vodafone operating company (in revenue). In this role she was responsible for defining their Analytics, BI and Big Data strategy and led the successful execution of major transformation programs to deliver commercial advantage. Caroline was also responsible for driving all the “data” aspects of the Acquisition & Integration of Kabel Deutschland ~£3bn M&A deal.

Caroline joined OS in June 2017 from Vodafone Germany. One of Caroline’s key responsibilities at OS is to be the champion of data at Board level, making sure OS data is treated as the incredible strategic asset that it is. Caroline is passionate about collaboration and driving national economic and citizen value and benefits from the increased opportunities made possible through unlocking the power of Great Britain’s spatial data – “everything happens somewhere”.

Kathryn is co-founder and CEO of Decoded, a technology education company up-skilling and re-skilling professionals in code, data, AI and machine learning. Their philosophy of no jargon, fun, fast, hands-on learning has resonated with a generation grappling with the impacts of AI and Automation. The Decoded Data Academies launched in 2018 with an ambition to fill the professional data skills gap. Kathryn is recommending business leaders ensure a 50:50 female/male learner ratio. Decoded now operates in over 85 cities worldwide.

Described as “an economic force” Kathryn sits on the UK Prime Minister and London Mayors Business Advisory Boards and is a non-executive on the board of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. She was part of the successful campaign to have code introduced as a mandatory to the UK national curriculum in September 2014 and in 2016 received an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list.

Karina Marks has been using Python for 5 years. She began her Data Science journey at Cardiff University and graduated with a Integrated Masters in Maths (MMath degree). After university she joined the Mango team and became one of their key Python experts. She has written the Introduction to Python for Analytics materials for Mango and loves sharing her knowledge with others.

Aimée is a Senior Consultant at Mango Solutions. She has a PhD in Statistics from Lancaster University where she also completed her undergraduate and master’s degrees. As the Training Lead at Mango, Aimée oversees training course development across the data science pipeline and has delivered training all over the world to hundreds of people on all aspects of R. You’ll see her attend and speak regularly at R user groups and meetups around the UK and in her spare time, she enjoys learning European languages and documenting her travels through photography.

JCURV’s mission is to increase the agility of the UK. As a management consultancy we help several of the UK’s largest organisations to change the way people work to deliver value faster, more efficiently and more effectively by combining data, and lean and agile ways of working.

Vikram Jain is the Managing Director of JCURV, with previous roles at Oliver Wyman, Lloyds Banking Group and Gemini consulting.

Kate is part of the founding team at  and has partnered with senior leaders across an impressive range of businesses including RBS, Aviva, BP, British Gas, Pernod Ricard, Diageo, IHG and Marks & Spencer. She brings provocative commercial and human insight to help leaders create a powerful point of view on their future and then use it to build change into the core of their business and professional lives. With deep expertise in strategy, transformation, innovation and digital, Kate is also an active member of London’s tech community (inc. founding Steerco of Tech She Can, judge at the UK Digital Awards) and sits on the Advisory Boards of a range of startup and scaling businesses. She is a qualified AoEC Executive Coach and is passionate about supporting people during periods of transition and transformation

Rowena is Chief Product Officer at Starcount, responsible for building their market-leading platform which visualises their consumer insight and data IP. One of Starcount’s longest serving employees with a strong background in data science, Rowena has been vital to the instigation and development of important client relationships across a number of industries such as media, retail, finance and automotive. Rowena has worked on building Starcount’s solution since day-dot and specialises in strategically prioritising capability based on development and market-needs. Rowena has a BSc in Astrophysics from The University of Bristol. Between May 2013 and November 2013, Rowena was Director of the The Female Lead, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to making women’s stories more visible and showing what woman today are capable of. The project still exists and celebrates the breadth of female ability, achievement and endeavour in order to offer a wealth of positive role models for future generations.

Mark has a CV that uniquely qualifies him to help people develop ‘soft skills’ in a sometimes harsh business environment. He has been a successful journalist (25 years with The Sunday Times), and also a successful pitch doctor (his storytelling and presenting skills have helped companies win over $5 billion of new business). In recent years he has focused on training, coaching and facilitating. Mark is a member of the Complementary Therapists Association, qualified to teach mindfulness, resilience and emotional wellbeing. Although Mark teaches many “soft” skills, his wide experience in a hard-edged business environment means that all courses are specifically tailored to today’s busy, pressured work environment. Mark’s recent clients include Renault, Intercontinental Hotels, The Economist, MediaCom, Krow, Bauer and Entura. He has also worked with senior executives from HSBC, Direct Line, Jaguar LandRover, Worldpay, Marks and Spencer, Standard Life, and the Home Office.

Founder and CEO of Fika, Nick and the team are on a mission to mainstream emotional fitness through a new social network, product innovation, patent pending inventions, AI, machine learning, data science and a passionate, committed team. Nick is an expert in creative strategy, products and branding, with deep working knowledge of user experience, data, media and technology.Nick has spent the last 7 years in start-ups, launching 3 successful consumer apps, 2 which were featured by Apple including an anonymous chat app that had fans raving over Twitter as ‘the best app ever built.’ He worked for 3 years at Starcount with teams of data scientists and product engineers to create a world class global data charting platform, audience profiling platform and a hyper targeting ad platform.

Before entering the start-up world, Nick helped build and run a digital agency as the creative and strategy partner at STEEL, playing a key role in developing the digital, tech and development offering. He was instrumental in maintaining it’s ranking for 7 years as an NMA top 100 digital agency, winning clients such as AOL, Xbox, Lastminute.com, Greggs, RBS, Talk Talk, MySpace, Travelocity, The UK Government and the NHS.

Fran has lectured in higher education for the past 13 years. Fran’s academic expertise is in sport and exercise psychology. She has completed both her MSc and PhD within this field and also holds a Certificate in Humanistic Integrative Counselling. Fran’s research interests are in athlete well-being and the characteristics of effective practitioner-client relationships. In addition to teaching and undertaking research, Fran works extensively as an applied practitioner, providing psychological support to athletes, coaches and others working in high performance environments. Fran works with her clients to both support their well-being and ability to flourish. Fran frequently up-skills her clients in the art of talking and listening purposefully to enhance their resilience. She has applied this understanding to Fika.