Diversity and inclusion are mission critical for us at GCHQ, gathering the right mix of minds to find innovative solutions to the toughest of problems. We’re committed to building on our work to better represent the communities we serve, including increasing the number of women in senior roles. Partnering with Women In Data will help to raise awareness of the diversity which already exists at GCHQ, but also support our talent pipeline and our aim to create a more representative balance of genders in data.
Over the next five years, the data landscape is expected to evolve significantly. Organisations will increasingly adopt multi-cloud technologies to enhance the flexibility and resilience of their data infrastructure. The development and integration of AI and machine learning will deepen, making data analytics more sophisticated and pervasive. This will enhance the ability to extract meaningful insights from large datasets rapidly. The amount of data generated by individuals, organisations, and devices will continue to grow exponentially, however as privacy concerns mount, this will compel organisations to prioritise data security and privacy, affecting data management practices. GCHQ’s unique contribution to the UK and global intelligence, security and cyber resilience is in collecting, analysing and producing insights derived from data so we can play an important part in protecting the UK – and the rest of world – from harm.
GCHQ is the UK’s intelligence, cyber and security agency with a mission to keep the country safe. Our brilliant people use cutting-edge technology, technical ingenuity and wide-ranging partnerships to identify, analyse and disrupt threats to the UK.
Liz Kistruck, CFO of Motorway
Liz Kistruck is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Motorway, the UK’s fastest-growing used car marketplace. Liz joined the business in July 2023, as Motorway’s first CFO, a role which oversees the finance function, as well as legal, analytics and payments operations.
Prior to joining Motorway, Liz worked as CFO at fashion marketplace Lyst, and spent 14 years at Expedia group holding CFO roles for Hotels.com, Expedia Partner Solutions, Expedia for Business as well as serving as SVP Global Marketing Analytics for the Expedia consumer brands. Liz trained as a management accountant with Dulux Paints and prior to that worked as a process improvement consultant across various European manufacturing sites.
Liz has a Masters in Engineering from Cambridge University and is a Chartered Management Accountant (CIMA).
Elly Evans, Director of Analytics at Motorway
Elly is currently a Director of Analytics at Motorway, the UK’s fastest growing used-car marketplace. In her role, Elly established the Analytics function at Motorway, leading a team of 10 data scientists. Elly empowers teams across Motorway in Marketing, Product and Operations with key insights and modelling to optimise their performance and encourage data-driven decision making.
Prior to Motorway, Elly spent over five years at Expedia Group and Hotels.com, optimising marketing channel analytics and leading on data strategy and enablement.
Elly has an MSci in Natural Sciences (Experimental and Theoretical Physics) and a PhD in Combined PET/MRI Preclinical Imaging, both from the University of Cambridge. Originally interested in an academic career as a Medical Physicist, Elly has had a long-standing interest in ensuring that technical advancements through data and engineering can be applied in interesting and useful ways to real-life problems.
Following on from her PhD, Elly joined Tesco initially as an Analyst in 2016 and built a team of data scientists and analysts specializing in forecasting demand for items on promotion across the UK, Ireland, Central Europe and Malaysia.
Ultimately, Elly believes having as diverse a group as possible, armed with accurate data, leads to the best outcomes. She has encouraged her employers, past and present, to widen their recruitment base to encourage more apprenticeships and entry level roles outside of our graduate program to open these opportunities up to a wider base.
Outside of work, Elly loves exploring the world with her young family and running marathons. She recently ran the London Marathon and looks forward to joining team Motoway at the Great City Run.
Rachael Halliday, Brand Director at Motorway
Rachael Halliday is an experienced marketing professional, with over 16 years of experience in building customer-centric brands and driving growth.
Rachael is the Director of Brand Marketing at Motorway, the UK’s fast-growing online car marketplace. Rachael is responsible for building the brand to drive growth and deliver long-term customer value for B2C and B2B. Rachael leads a diverse team of marketers in developing, executing, and analysing brand and marketing strategies that leverage online and digital channels, as well as traditional media. She is passionate about creating engaging and memorable customer experiences that differentiate Motorway from the competition and building an empowered team. She is a customer-obsessed brand marketer who leads with creativity, data, and strategy.
Prior to joining Motorway, Rachael worked at Sky and Now, for more than 10 years. During her time at Sky, Rachael led the marketing for a range of Sky products including Sky+, Sky Go, Sky Cinema and laterally the streaming platform, Now TV. Rachael has previously worked for big brands such as Red Bull, Royal Caribbean International and General Motors.
Simal Patel, Lead Product Manager at Motorway
Simal is a Lead Product Manager at Motorway, the UK’s fastest-growing used car marketplace. Simal joined the business in February 2023 to lead the Growth and Engagement teams responsible for optimising the experience for private car sellers, creating innovative tools to give consumers more reasons to engage with Motorway.
Prior to joining Motorway, Simal has been in Product roles in high-growth/scale-up companies such as Farfetch and Activision Blizzard King as well as a founding member of a gardening marketplace startup. Simal’s transition into Product from Engineering roles at King and The London Stock Exchange were inevitable given her passion for using tech/data to solve commercial and consumer problems.
Simal has a BSc in Computer Science and Management from Kings College London.
Outside of Product, Simal is a gin enthusiast and entrepreneur and has her own gin brand called Gin Wala.
Katie MacDonald, Senior Product Manager at Motorway
Katie MacDonald is a seasoned Senior Product Manager with a track record of driving innovation and enhancing user experiences. As Senior Product Manager for the dealer experience at Motorway, Katie is responsible for the optimization of the vehicle browsing and bidding processes, driving value for Motorway’s dealer partners. Katie actively uses data, leveraging the power of machine learning and AI models, to help dealers find more relevant stock, faster, ultimately improving their overall user experience.
Prior to her role at Motorway, Katie was a Senior Product Manager at MasterClass, an educational and entertainment streaming platform. There, she played a pivotal role in building the B2B segment, contributing significantly to the company’s growth and strategic initiatives.
Hannah Carroll, Analytics Engineer at Motorway
Hannah Carroll is an Analytics Engineer at Motorway, the UK’s fastest growing used-car marketplace. In her current role, Hannah provides clean datasets to end-users, modelling data in a way that empowers teams to find answers to their questions in an independent way. She supports the upper funnel, customer success service teams and also the post-sale teams, in order to use data to enhance user experiences and operational efficiency.
Hannah’s journey with Motorway began when she joined the company as a Data Analyst and after one year, made the transition to Analytics Engineer.
Before joining Motorway, Hannah gained valuable experience in various analytical roles across different industries. She served as a Tactical Analyst at ASOS, where she honed her ability to interpret data trends and support tactical decision-making processes. Prior to that, she was a Workforce Planning Specialist at MOO, where she focused on optimising workforce allocation and planning to improve operational efficiencies.
