Reflecting our long-standing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), Capco is delighted to formalise our association with Women In Data (WID) and to become a Corporate Partner. “We see WID as a valued collaborator in supporting our efforts to enhance the experience of women within the data practice,” says Razan Abdelgadir, Capco UK DEI Manager. “We will be working with WID as a thought partner in our industry and to help us better support our clients with their own DEI challenges.”
Capco prides itself on its innovative Be Yourself At Work culture and steadfast focus on DEI engagement, advocacy and education programmes that advance underrepresented talent within the firm. “This partnership will help us champion more women into the industry,” says Rehaan Anjum, Capco Partner, Data, “as well as giving our people access to Women in Data networks. We recognise that taking proactive steps towards more equal representation in our data practice will create opportunities, and lead to greater innovation.” Capco’s global Data practice enables financial institutions to become data-driven by helping transform their understanding, management, storage, and use of data to derive value for themselves and their customers.
The Capco Data Team attending Women in Data Flagship Event 2023
Regulation remains a driver of data strategy in financial institutions, however, we are seeing a shift in the market, towards using data at scale to drive value, automation and next-gen intelligent services. With uncertain macro-economic conditions, it is crucial for organisations to have a better understanding of their data and ensure it is available, high quality and well governed, enabling business processes to operate with increased efficiency, whilst driving strategic objectives and decision-making.
Over the next five years, we expect a shift from process and people-driven data management to data management by design, enabled by intelligent, scalable platforms, automated capabilities and services that provide rich context to data. This will mean embedding data management, architecture, and technology, as well as increased automation and digitisation of data. We will see an increase in the use of advanced analytics, data science and AI, allowing us to offer our clients solutions that are both innovative and pragmatic.
An expanding array of regulations will require clients to do more than ever with their data, whilst delivering the best possible outcomes for customers, addressing environmental and societal considerations, and launching new ways to serve customers in the most optimal way. We are already seeing this at our financial services clients, with increased focus on understanding customers (e.g. vulnerable customers) and meeting their changing needs, such as through data strategies that deliver and measure sustainable investments, climate impact and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.
Capco, a Wipro company, is a global technology and management consultancy specializing in driving digital transformation in the financial services industry. With a growing client portfolio comprising of over 100 global organizations, Capco operates at the intersection of business and technology by combining innovative thinking with unrivalled industry knowledge to fast-track digital initiatives for banking and payments, capital markets, wealth and asset management, insurance, and the energy sector. Capco’s cutting-edge ingenuity is brought to life through its award-winning Be Yourself At Work culture and diverse talent. To learn more, visit www.capco.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Expertise: Data Governance, Data Management, Data Privacy
Education: University of Reading, LL.B Law; Northumbria University, MSc Business Analytics
Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oreoluwa-dosumu/
Ore is a Data Consultant in Capco UK’s Data practice, with experience as a data governance and privacy specialist in the financial services industry. Her role is to help clients develop and implement data strategies and governance frameworks that can leverage the full potential of their data.
After graduating with a degree in Law and a budding interest in data, Ore started her career at a bank as a data privacy specialist and quickly developed an interest in data governance and management. With the aim of taking on a challenge and preparing for a wide-ranging career in data, Ore pursued a Master’s degree in Business Analytics, which honed her technical skills in data manipulation, modelling and visualization.
Outside of her day-to-day work, Ore is interested in fitness and wellness and is in the process of building a Capco Women’s Weightlifting club to encourage more women to try strength training – traditionally a male-dominated activity. Ore also supports various affinity groups by helping with events, and is intent on using her voice, personality and wit to help Capco become a more inclusive workplace, and to inspire others like her to pursue their personal and career goals.
When she is not working, Ore enjoys weightlifting, watching films and plays, and co-hosting a podcast that discusses West African gastronomy and pop culture.
Expertise: Data Management & Strategy
Education: BA Hons Economics, MSc Economic Development and Policy Analysis, University of Nottingham
Social Media: www.linkedin.com/in/emma-cudal
Emma is a Principal Consultant in Capco’s Data practice, working with a range of clients to help them design and implement data strategies and data management frameworks. Emma is very people focused, with strong leadership skills and an appetite for problem solving and developing solutions for her clients that generate real data-driven value.
Emma has over 13 years of experience in financial services and started her career in the middle- and back-office functions of global investment banks, including several years working in collateral management. Emma’s involvement in system automation and STP projects widened her experience and helped to develop her core skills in business analysis and project management.
Through working with Capco teams in her industry role, Emma became familiar with Capco and the world of consultancy. She decided to join Capco because the firm offered an exciting range of clients and opportunities, as well as a unique community-focused culture and flat structure in which meritocracy and people development are key.
Emma was not initially hired into the Data practice but soon became involved in a project to establish a global data management office and has never looked back! Over the last seven years at Capco, Emma has worked with global clients to deliver transformations in data management, including defining data lineage and controls frameworks, implementing data quality remediation, ensuring compliance with data protection regulations, and defining target operating models.
Emma is the lead for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the Data practice – part of a network promoting the recruitment, development and advancement of underrepresented groups at the firm. One of her highlights has been expanding Capco’s Data practice DEI team to support women and other underrepresented groups to pursue a successful career in Data, through internal and external initiatives. Capco provides coaching and development all the way from the firm’s Associate Data Programme (ADP) through to leadership levels.
Outside of work, Emma reads the classics, experiments with different recipes in the kitchen – and never just uses tried-and-tested recipes when she has friends over! She loves travelling to new places and putting her Advanced Open Water scuba diving qualification to good use.
Expertise: Data Management, Change Management, Programme Management
Education: Bachelor of Commerce, University of Natal; MSc Information Management, City University
Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-needham/
Helen is part of the leadership team in the Data practice, focused on supporting clients in financial services to establish effective data management practices and derive business insights from available data. Helen is also a passionate neurodiversity advocate and heads up the Capco Ability employee network, which is focused on fostering a disability inclusive environment for current and future employees.
Prior to working at Capco, Helen worked as a Java developer and business analyst, building and implementing financial software for investment banks. It was Helen’s love of problem solving, and a desire to understand how systems are connected to form enterprise-wide solutions, that led her to join Capco. Since joining, Helen has worked on a range of projects including defining taxonomies, planning for data migrations and system virtualization, and defining strategic control frameworks, as well as establishing and rolling out data lineage gathering programmes and reporting and metrics solutions.
As the Ability lead, Helen has supported initiatives to increase disability inclusion at Capco. This includes establishing a reasonable adjustments policy, Neurodiversity Champions and specialist workplace coaching sessions for neurodiverse individuals, as well as ensuring the use of closed captions on global events and videos.
Expertise: Data Transformation and ESG
Education: Goethe University, Economics and Finance, Finance & Accounting
Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-kopp-832b6a133/
Michelle is a Principal Consultant at Capco, who graduated from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, with a degree in Finance & Accounting. During her studies, she was inspired by her fellow students to seek job opportunities abroad, with a close friend suggesting that data consulting would be a good fit – and promising it would be the ‘next big thing’. Michelle followed her advice and accepted a job offer from a London-based consultancy.
Michelle spent the first years of her career working on data management and governance projects across Europe. However, the weekly back and forth for work made it difficult for her to feel at home in London. She also began to doubt the immediate impact of her projects on banks’ ways of operating, and felt out of place in a male-dominated domain. She shared her frustrations with a friend who was working for Capco Germany at the time, who highlighted Capco’s great culture and local client base and convinced her to give London and Data another chance by applying to Capco UK.
Since joining Capco, Michelle has been managing transformational programmes, including high priority ESG data initiatives, global data & analytics projects and target operating models. It turns out, she says, that data can be super exciting, if you get to work with the right people on prioritized data initiatives and have a chance to see the impact and value of your projects. Meanwhile, she gets to spend a lot more time exploring London.
For Michelle, a highlight is seeing how much effort Capco puts into supporting women as they pursue a career in Data, through many initiatives such as female-to-female coaching and dedicated networking events. She recently attended one of the firm’s breakfast networking events for women, meeting lots of new and happy faces, and points to the steady increase of women joining Capco’s ADP program and wider Data practice.
It’s the people that make Capco such a great place to be, says Michelle. Working with motivated people of different backgrounds, skills, experiences, and knowledge ensures that business challenges are constantly reviewed from different perspectives, allowing Capco to offer better solutions to its customers – and steeper learning curves to its employees.
Expertise: Data Transformation, Data Analytics, Data Strategy, Data Management and Governance
Education: PhD, University of Strathclyde, Marketing (International Business Management)
Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/penelopequah/
Penny is a Managing Principal at Capco, helping insurers to use data to drive quicker and more accurate decisions so they can thrive in an industry facing a lot of macro-economic headwinds and disruption. Penny’s also a mum to a wonderful 10-year-old girl, Aila, who she encourages to be her best at whatever she is interested in, whether that’s netball, ballet, art, maths, or drama.
Penny studied Marketing and Economics for her first degree and her love of research – qualitative and quantitative – led to a doctorate degree in how national and corporate cultural differences affected post-acquisition management. She then Penny moved from Scotland to Shanghai, which was booming in the early 2000s, to experience working in a fast-growing, exciting city in a role supporting C-suite stakeholders.
Penny returned to London to work for an American automotive forecasting firm as a a forecasting analyst and then as a manager of financial services. However, she always had an interest in management consulting, so when a Big 4 opportunity came knocking she took a step down in terms of her job title to learn the ropes of business intelligence as a business/data analyst. Promoted to manager and senior manager positions, she started to specialize in data strategy and data management/governance, working on Solvency II, BCBS 239, IFRS9, IFRS17 projects across insurance and banking clients.
As the first lockdown began in 2020, Penny moved back into industry to head up a product development team in the London market, but realized she missed the excitement and variety of consulting. She began to look for opportunities with a consulting outfit with more room for personal growth and progression – and found Capco. Joining in January 2021, she was given the challenge of landing a new client and then expanding the firm’s footprint with them. From a small POC of a team of four, the account has now grown across the client’s UK business units.
This would not have been possible, she says, without the unique advantage of Capco’s culture. The corporate structure is very flat, she says, where everyone is encouraged to listen, speak up and challenge each other in a respectful manner – as well as to deliver the best quality outputs for clients by continuing to learn.
Capco encourages everyone to Be Yourself At Work, says Penny, and has given her the flexibility to juggle a demanding consulting career – delivering across multiple engagements while also selling future projects – with raising her daughter. Organizing around school runs, netball fixtures and ballet rehearsals means that the days can be long, but Penny says she really loves being able to do both roles. She’s a full-time mum and a full-time senior data leader in a global consulting firm that puts the customer, and data, at the heart of business strategy.
