I started my career at IBM and have since spent the last 13 years in the insurance industry at Zurich. I spent a number of years as a programme manager, putting systems live that would generate tremendous amounts of data. As I moved into senior management, my focus turned to operational excellence, looking after continuous improvement, automation and numerous operational disciplines. All of these were reliant on data, created a lot of data, and have heavily impacted on the resulting data architecture (by my own admission, not always positively). 

My track record of delivery resulted in me being asked to take over the MI team at a time when data had become a major issue that needed focus, dedication and investment. It was clear that I had a team of committed and passionate experts who needed help in selling the story, building delivery capability and, as such, earning the right to continue. 

In year one, I carried out a data deep dive, proposed a strategy and restructured the team into a data architecture and analytics function, securing significant investment for delivery. By year two, we had put live the first phase of our strategic data asset and laid firm foundations for becoming a truly data-centric organisation.

A combination of loving the job, having a natural affinity with all things data, and a fantastic team behind me has resulted in a temporary challenge becoming more permanent through the appointment to CDO for the UK business.