Welwyn Garden City, England, United Kingdom
I believe data and AI should be enablers of resilience, clarity and growth, not by-products of technology. With nearly three decades of international leadership, I help organisations worldwide turn complex data landscapes into trusted, scalable foundations that deliver measurable business impact. My career has spanned executive roles across industries including finance, retail, healthcare, telecoms, technology and life sciences. I have guided enterprises on five continents through large-scale transformations, modernising ecosystems, operationalising advanced analytics and linking strategy to execution. Today, I am Executive Director at AstraZeneca, leading Axial’s data deployment, a transformation designed to harmonise data and processes across the enterprise, enabling smarter decision-making and sustainable growth. Alongside corporate leadership, I advise organisations internationally, lecture on data and AI, and contribute actively to the global data profession through publications, practitioner forums and keynote speaking. Featured in the DataIQ 100, I remain passionate about shaping the conditions where data drives lasting competitive advantage.
Axial is AstraZeneca's once-in-a-generation enterprise transformation, delivering the digital backbone for Bold Ambition 2030: 20 new medicines, $80B in revenue, and a carbon-negative footprint. The programme spans more than 20,000 users across 28 manufacturing sites and 100+ commercial entities, consolidates seven legacy ERP systems into a single global S/4HANA instance, integrates more than 1,500 business processes, and standardises 180+ core data objects across all business units and geographies. It is one of the most complex digital transformations in the pharmaceutical industry. As Head of Data Deployment, I define and lead the global deployment approach for data across Axial, encompassing data cleanse, harmonisation, migration sequencing, and deployment readiness across all programme phases. I work in close partnership with functional, technical, and programme leadership to ensure data transitions from legacy platforms into the new digital core with integrity and operational confidence. My focus extends beyond migration. I treat data as a strategic asset to be engineered, not just moved. This means embedding AI-ready data structures, enforcing semantic consistency and lineage, and ensuring that the data landing in S/4HANA is fit not only for operational use but for the intelligent capabilities that sit above it: from supply chain signal detection to automated process orchestration and decision support across manufacturing and commercial domains. Central to this work is the principle that AI adoption at scale depends entirely on the quality and trustworthiness of the data beneath it. I bring both the technical grounding and the governance discipline to hold that line across a complex, fast-moving programme. This role sits at the intersection of data quality, enterprise transformation, and AI enablement, grounded in the conviction that data done well is the foundation for everything that follows.
DataManifesto.org is a mission-driven think tank dedicated to reshaping the way organizations approach data strategy, governance, and enablement. Founded by David Castro-Gavino and Boyan Angelov, this initiative was born out of a shared frustration: despite decades of investment in data, AI, and analytics, the failure rate of data initiatives remains alarmingly high. Too often, organizations focus on the visible outputs—dashboards, machine learning models, and AI-driven solutions—without addressing the invisible foundations that determine success. Governance, quality, accessibility, and data literacy remain overlooked, leading to stalled initiatives, low adoption, and lost business value. To tackle this challenge, we developed The Data Enabling Framework & Manifesto, a structured approach that provides guiding principles and a practical model for building scalable, trusted, and business-aligned data ecosystems. Inspired by the Agile Manifesto, our framework is designed to: • Bridge the gap between data producers and consumers by focusing on business impact, not just technology. • Provide a shared language for data leaders and business stakeholders to align on strategy and execution. • Balance innovation and governance, ensuring organizations don’t fall into the trap of “pilotitis” or misaligned investments. • Empower data teams with a structured model that supports both foundational data work and high-impact AI/analytics use cases. At DataManifesto.org, we are building a community of data practitioners, executives, and leaders who believe in practical, measurable, and sustainable data strategies. Join us as we shine a light on the invisible forces of data strategy and drive real, scalable business value.
I led HelloFresh’s global data transformation, scaling data capabilities to support the company’s rapid growth while embedding data-driven decision-making across the organisation. My focus was on modernising the data ecosystem, fostering a data-first culture, and delivering measurable business impact. Key Achievements: • Building and scaling the Data Alliance, growing the team from 25 to 180+ data professionals, fostering a high-performance, collaborative, and innovation-driven culture. • Defining and executing HelloFresh’s global data strategy, ensuring alignment with business objectives, governance, security, and compliance standards. • Leading P&L for the global Data & Tech function, driving efficiency through cost optimisation, operational improvements, and strategic investments. • Developing and implementing a distributed, self-service data platform, applying data mesh principles to enhance agility, improve accessibility, and reduce time-to-insight from months to hours. • Strengthening governance and transparency by implementing a global data catalog, ensuring trusted, certified data assets and standardised metrics. • Driving the creation of scalable data products and analytics solutions across Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain, Product Analytics, and People Analytics, enabling data-driven decision-making at all levels. • Championing self-service analytics, going beyond reporting (Dashboarding as a Sport) to empower teams with actionable insights, including early-stage pilots leveraging LLMs for conversational BI. • Partnering with senior leadership and cross-functional teams, ensuring seamless integration of data insights into strategic decision-making. This journey was about bridging the gap between data producers and consumers, ensuring data is not just accessible, but trusted, actionable, and a driver of business transformation.
Provided advisory on data, analytics, and science, focusing on optimising data operations, use of the data technology landscape, and operating mechanisms. Coached senior data professionals and supported the hiring of data executives.