The Data Strategy Show

In my 13th episode I speak to Ann K. Emery Data Visualization Speaker & Designer. We talk about:

1) Her research, data and entrepreneurial journey

2) The challenges faced by companies who don't know how to visualise their data

3) What you should be thinking about when creating or re-designing dashboards

4) How to get into data visualisation and what to learn

5) How to test your data products with the business stakeholders

6) Her experience of (almost) selling up and travelling the world! 

About Ann:

Ann K. Emery is a internationally-acclaimed speaker who equips organizations to get their data out of dusty spreadsheets and into real-world conversations. Each year, she delivers over 50 keynotes, workshops, and webinars with the aim of equipping organizations to visualize data more effectively. 

She has been invited to speak in more than 30 states and 10 countries; more than 3,200 people have enrolled in her online training academy; and she has consulted to more than 150 organizations, including the United Nations, Centers for Disease Control, and Harvard University. She earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a Master’s degree from George Mason University. When Ann's not on-site with clients, she resides in Florida along with her husband and two daughters. 

About Samir:

Samir is a data strategy and analytics leader, CEO and Founder of datazuum. He has a history of helping data executives and leaders craft and execute their data strategies. His passion for data strategy led him to launch the Data Accelerator Workshop, and host the Data Strategy Show.

After a career in both private and public sectors Samir launched the datazuum brand in 2012, with a view to working with executives to deliver data strategy at a time when data was not seen as a business asset. 

Today datazuum delivers projects across both private and public sectors including: Charities, Financial Services (Banking & Insurance), Government, Housing & Construction, Law Enforcement, Logistics, Media & Publishing, Outsourcing, Postal, Retail, Telecoms, Transport and Utilities.

Samir has 20 years of international experience across Europe, North America, and Africa. Is a regular speaker at international conferences, coach / mentor, a charity fundraiser, and youth champion for Working Knowledge - supporting young people to achieve their personal and career goals in life.

Samir lives in London with his wife and daughter.

Contact details for Samir

LinkedIn: Samir Sharma

Email: [email protected]

website: www.datazuum.com

In my 12th episode I speak to Roman Stanek CEO of GoodData. We talk about:

1) His entrepreneurial journey

2) How the data value chain is becoming increasingly important

3) Trends over the last 10 years with BI to Analytics

4) The pendulum from IT to the business and back to IT

5) Chief Data Officers and their challenges

6) CEOs trusting their data

7) Building trusted data portals

8) If companies need to invest in product managers for analytics

9) Cloud Data Warehouses

10) Organisational data silos 

11) What the future holds for data and business

12) The end of the "black box"

About Roman:

Roman Stanek is a passionate entrepreneur and industry expert with over 20 years of experience. He founded GoodData on a mission to disrupt the business intelligence space and help companies monetize big data. As CEO, Roman has become a leading voice in the analytics industry, pushing the boundaries of how companies use data insights to move forward. Roman is actively involved in GoodData’s client relationships, taking care to understand the challenges they face and how data can positively impact clients’ future success. 

Prior to GoodData, Roman served as Founder and CEO of two startups, NetBeans and Systinet. NetBeans, a leading Java development environment, was successfully sold to Sun Microsystems in 1999. Systinet, a leading SOA governance platform, was similarly sold to Mercury Interactive (later acquired by HP Software), in 2006. Throughout his career, Roman’s work has helped transform the high-tech landscape. As he looks to the future, Roman’s focus is centered on the evolution of the data value chain and how it will shape the future of analytics.

About Samir:

Samir is a data strategy and analytics leader, CEO and Founder of datazuum. He has a history of helping data executives and leaders craft and execute their data strategies. His passion for data strategy led him to launch the Data Accelerator Workshop, and host the Data Strategy Show.

After a career in both private and public sectors Samir launched the datazuum brand in 2012, with a view to working with executives to deliver data strategy at a time when data was not seen as a business asset. 

Today datazuum delivers projects across both private and public sectors including: Charities, Financial Services (Banking & Insurance), Government, Housing & Construction, Law Enforcement, Logistics, Media & Publishing, Outsourcing, Postal, Retail, Telecoms, Transport and Utilities.

Samir has 20 years of international experience across Europe, North America, and Africa. Is a regular speaker at international conferences, coach / mentor, a charity fundraiser, and youth champion for Working Knowledge - supporting young people to achieve their personal and career goals in life.

Samir lives in London with his wife and daughter.

Contact details for Samir

LinkedIn: Samir Sharma

Email: [email protected]

website: www.datazuum.com

In my 11th episode I speak to Thom Ives. We talk about:

1) His journey to becoming the passionate data scientist he is today

1) What makes a good data scientist today and for the future

2) Innovation vs. Practicality in Data Science

3) Building relationships and networks

4) How you can reduce and ensure bias gets stripped out

5) His education, mentoring journey and "integrating with Brilliance"

About Thom:

Thom Ives has had a 30+ year career focused on making predictions. He is a data scientist, and his particular passion is around automating analyses and data visualization including animation when necessary. The main language for the past 20 years has been python, and he is a skilled with many of pythons' data science modules.

He is a data scientist who has wide business acumen. In August 2018, He started Integrated Machine Learning & AI providing services and instruction in the data science arena.  In July of 2019, he joined UL's Prospector team as their lead data scientist.  He also mentors individuals who are dispersed all over the world and hosts online Integrated Mentoring sessions.  

In summary Thom says he’s an addicted data scientist and dynamic systems modeler and analyst that loves to work with great people to improve the performance of business or products through better design.

About Samir:

Samir is a data strategy and analytics leader, CEO and Founder of datazuum. He has a history of helping data executives and leaders craft and execute their data strategies. His passion for data strategy led him to launch the Data Accelerator Workshop, and host the Data Strategy Show.

After a career in both private and public sectors Samir launched the datazuum brand in 2012, with a view to working with executives to deliver data strategy at a time when data was not seen as a business asset. 

Today datazuum delivers projects across both private and public sectors including: Charities, Financial Services (Banking & Insurance), Government, Housing & Construction, Law Enforcement, Logistics, Media & Publishing, Outsourcing, Postal, Retail, Telecoms, Transport and Utilities.

Samir has 20 years of international experience across Europe, North America, and Africa. Is a regular speaker at international conferences, coach / mentor, a charity fundraiser, and youth champion for Working Knowledge - supporting young people to achieve their personal and career goals in life.

Samir lives in London with his wife and daughter.

Contact details for Samir

LinkedIn: Samir Sharma

Email: [email protected]

website: www.datazuum.com

In my 10th episode I speak to Michiel van Staden.  We talk about:

1) Building Analytics Teams

2) Diversity of thought when working with the business

3) Building relationships and networks

4) Working with the business and solving problems

5) Challenges of implementing a federated Centre of Excellence

6) Linking Data Governance to immediate business challenges

7) What traits Data Leaders need to build to be effective

About Michiel:

Michiel is the Data Analytics Lead for Absa Group.  He believes in Freedom with Respect - Pushing Boundaries, Asking Questions & Listening - Community in Diversity

Having completed an Honors in Mathematical Statistics with distinction, he holds a strong ability to make sense of numbers and find patterns in information.

Over my 13 years in data analytics, he has witnessed the tremendous benefits of good data governance, whilst also working through resolving the direct consequences of various ways in which it can be lacking.

Within data analytics roles ranging from fraud prevention, credit risk & operations to digital & marketing, he has practical experience in accessing data from a range of sources internally and working directly with data received from external parties, engaging data security, privacy and regulations, using a range of data mining tools from more traditional to open source, informing business of current realities via various reporting channels, automating complicated processes alongside data engineering, driving the implementation of value adding data science initiatives and guiding business strategy by collaborative data storytelling.

As a lifelong learner, he is constantly studying online, reading and getting involved in the developing data community, following the ever evolving data landscape, whilst planning to start a Masters in Big Data Science.

Michiel's leadership development journey has been purposefully driven by a keen ear for listening, refined through ongoing coaching studies and a joy in increasingly sharing my learnings via mentoring, public speaking & writings. 

About Samir:

Samir is a data strategy and analytics leader, CEO and Founder of datazuum. He has a history of helping data executives and leaders craft and execute their data strategies. His passion for data strategy led him to launch the Data Accelerator Workshop, and host the Data Strategy Show.

After a career in both private and public sectors Samir launched the datazuum brand in 2012, with a view to working with executives to deliver data strategy at a time when data was not seen as a business asset. 

Today datazuum delivers projects across both private and public sectors including: Charities, Financial Services (Banking & Insurance), Government, Housing & Construction, Law Enforcement, Logistics, Media & Publishing, Outsourcing, Postal, Retail, Telecoms, Transport and Utilities.

Samir has 20 years of international experience across Europe, North America, and Africa. Is a regular speaker at international conferences, coach / mentor, a charity fundraiser, and youth champion for Working Knowledge - supporting young people to achieve their personal and career goals in life.

Samir lives in London with his wife and daughter.

Contact details for Samir

LinkedIn: Samir Sharma

Email: [email protected]

website: datazuum

In my 9th episode I speak to Brent Dykes Sr. Director, Insights & Data Storytelling at Blast Analytics, and author of the book Effective Data Storytelling.  We talk about:

1) The definition of Data Storytelling

2) The three Star Trek characters

3) The difference between data literacy and data storytelling

4) The data storytelling arc

5) Education and how data storytelling needs to be introduced into schools

About Brent:

Brent Dykes is the Senior Director of Insights and Data Storytelling at Blast Analytics. He is also the author of Effective Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change with Data, Narrative, and Visuals. Brent has more than 15 years of enterprise analytics experience at Omniture, Adobe, and Domo. 

His passion for data strategy and data storytelling comes from consulting with many industry leaders including Nike, Microsoft, Sony, and Comcast. He is a regular Forbes contributor and has written more than 35 articles on different data-related topics. 

In 2016, Brent received the Most Influential Industry Contributor Award from the Digital Analytics Association (DAA). He is a popular speaker at conferences such as Strata, Web Summit, Shop.org, Adtech, Pubcon, RISE, Crunch, and Adobe Summit. Brent holds an MBA from Brigham Young University and a BBA in marketing from Simon Fraser University.

About Samir:

Samir is a data strategy and analytics leader, CEO and Founder of datazuum. He has a history of helping data executives and leaders craft and execute their data strategies. His passion for data strategy led him to launch the Data Accelerator Workshop, and host the Data Strategy Show.

After a career in both private and public sectors Samir launched the datazuum brand in 2012, with a view to working with executives to deliver data strategy at a time when data was not seen as a business asset. 

Today datazuum delivers projects across both private and public sectors including: Charities, Financial Services (Banking & Insurance), Government, Housing & Construction, Law Enforcement, Logistics, Media & Publishing, Outsourcing, Postal, Retail, Telecoms, Transport and Utilities.

Samir has 20 years of international experience across Europe, North America, and Africa. Is a regular speaker at international conferences, coach / mentor, a charity fundraiser, and youth champion for Working Knowledge - supporting young people to achieve their personal and career goals in life.

Samir lives in London with his wife and daughter.

Contact details for Samir

LinkedIn: Samir Sharma

Email: [email protected]

website: www.datazuum.com

In my 8th episode I speak to Emmanuel Osanga Head Data Management Africa Regions at Standard Bank Group Africa about 

About Emmanuel:

Emmanuel Osanga has more than (19+ years) in the area of Data Management, Data Analytics, Business Intelligence and Information Systems with Degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from Makerere University Uganda.

He is a Data Evangelist and has developed and implemented Data Strategies in the Financial Services Sector in more than 15 countries within Africa.

Emmanuel has been extensively involved in several major systems implementation programmes within Standard Bank Group across Africa. Designed a Management Information System and Reporting Frameworks for Stanbic IBTC Bank Nigeria in their Core Banking System (Finacle) deployed in more 14 countries.

He is passionate about developing future skills and as a result initiated a Data Science Pipeline Programme at Standard Bank Group Africa that has been running since 2017 and have also been instrumental in shifting the data analytics culture.

He is married to Esther with whom he has three brilliant daughters. His life objective is to add value in every encounter serving people while building lifetime relationships and enabling them to connect with their purposes and destinies.

About Samir:

Samir is a data strategy and analytics leader, CEO and Founder of datazuum. He has a history of helping data executives and leaders craft and execute their data strategies. His passion for data strategy led him to launch, the Data Accelerator Workshop, and host the popular Data Strategy Show.

After a career in both private and public sectors Samir launched the datazuum brand in 2012, with a view to working with executives to deliver data strategy at a time when data was not seen as a business asset. Today datazuum delivers projects across both private and public sectors including: Charities, Financial Services (Banking & Insurance), Government, Housing & Construction, Law Enforcement, Logistics, Media & Publishing, Outsourcing, Postal, Retail, Telecoms, Transport and Utilities.

Samir has 20 years of international experience across Europe, North America, and Africa. Is a regular speaker at international conferences, coach / mentor, a charity fundraiser, and youth champion for Working Knowledge - supporting young people to achieve their personal and career goals in life.

Samir lives in London with his wife and daughter.

Contact details for Samir

LinkedIn: Samir Sharma

Email: [email protected]

website: www.datazuum.com

In my 7th episode I speak to Vukosi Sambo about data monetisation, treating data as an asset, becoming a chief data officer, and his top three tips for becoming a Chief Data Officer.  

Vukosi is an experienced executive with over 10 years’ experience in insurance, banking, FMCG and Market Research.  He is an expert specialist in data science, digital strategies, infonomics, data monetisation, risk management and actuarial, business architecture, consumer research and insights, remuneration design, process analysis, change and operations management.   

He currently serves as the Chief Data Officer of Kaelo, a South African health insurer with over 1 million lives under cover, specialising in primary healthcare, wellness program, gap cover and onsite clinics. He also serves as the chairperson of the remuneration committee (REMCO), member of the people committee, member of the IT and Data committee, and company’s group executive committee.  Prior to Joining Kaelo, Vukosi held senior roles in Discovery Bank, SAB, Nielsen and Discovery Health. 

He has won several awards including Global Top 100 Data Visionaries 2020, Discovery CEO outstanding leader star award & Top Region Matriculant (Limpopo). Major previous projects include leading migration of Discovery Card from FNB platform to Discovery Bank.  His background includes studies in Economic Science (Wits), Post Graduate Advanced Program in Risk Management (Unisa), Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (Unisa), Executive education in Digital Strategies for Business (Columbia Business School, USA), Certificate in Lean Six Sigma (BMGI University, USA), Certificate in Advanced Forecasting for Data Analysts (Adcorp Analytics), Certificates in Cloud Computing and Machine Learning (GreatLearning).   

He is currently completing MBA with Unisa SBL and Post Graduate Program in Artificial Intelligence with University of Texas, USA. He is the member of the operation research society of South Africa and Institute of Risk Managers. He is a comrade marathon, two oceans marathon and Soweto marathon finisher.

About Samir:

Samir is a data strategy and analytics leader, CEO and Founder of datazuum. He has a history of helping data executives and leaders craft and execute their data strategies. His passion for data strategy led him to launch, the Data Accelerator Workshop, and host the popular Data Strategy Show.

After a career in both private and public sectors Samir launched the datazuum brand in 2012, with a view to working with executives to deliver data strategy at a time when data was not seen as a business asset. Today datazuum delivers projects across both private and public sectors including: Charities, Financial Services (Banking & Insurance), Government, Housing & Construction, Law Enforcement, Logistics, Media & Publishing, Outsourcing, Postal, Retail, Telecoms, Transport and Utilities.

Samir has 20 years of international experience across Europe, North America, and Africa. Is a regular speaker at international conferences, coach / mentor, a charity fundraiser, and youth champion for Working Knowledge - supporting young people to achieve their personal and career goals in life.

Samir lives in London with his wife and daughter.

Contact details for Samir

LinkedIn: Samir Sharma

Email: [email protected]

website: www.datazuum.com

In my 6th episode I speak to Kathleen about her experiences in the world of business analytics mainly in the banking domain, her approach to analysis, working with business partners, building solid and successful analytics teams, leadership and so much more!  

If you are thinking of getting into analytics, training to become a data analyst, data scientist or working in the business domain with analytics teams, then is this a MUST watch for you!  

Kathleen Maley is a business leader specializing in the science of data and analytics. With more than 15 years of experience, she helps her partners achieve outsized business value through the practical application of analytical techniques. She is a cultural change agent in the adoption of analytical strategies, and her passion is found in helping organizations leapfrog her early experience to accelerate their journeys toward value-generating analytics.   

Kathleen started her career on the leading edge of a revolution in data-based decision making at Bank of America. She built predictive models, ran a model risk management group and led several business-analytics verticals. In her culminating role as the bank’s consumer deposits pricing executive, she transformed the business from intuition-based to predictive model-based, creating an efficiency of $65 million per basis point saved.   

As the head of consumer and digital analytics at KeyBank, Kathleen increased the economic impact of her team by elevating their role from data provider to strategic partner. She established a discipline for measuring realized benefit of analytically informed business initiatives and engineered a shift toward collaboration, ensuring analytical solutions are developed hand-in-hand with business execution plans.   

Kathleen is a member of the International Institute for Analytics’ expert network, board member and volunteer statistician for Turner Syndrome Society of the United States, published writer and frequent speaker. She holds degrees in Mathematics and Applied Statistics. Previously, Kathleen taught high school mathematics and statistics in Costa Rica, Mexico and China.

About Samir:

Samir is a data strategy and analytics leader, CEO and Founder of datazuum. He has a history of helping data executives and leaders craft and execute their data strategies. His passion for data strategy led him to launch, the Data Accelerator Workshop, and host the popular Data Strategy Show.

After a career in both private and public sectors Samir launched the datazuum brand in 2012, with a view to working with executives to deliver data strategy at a time when data was not seen as a business asset. Today datazuum delivers projects across both private and public sectors including: Charities, Financial Services (Banking & Insurance), Government, Housing & Construction, Law Enforcement, Logistics, Media & Publishing, Outsourcing, Postal, Retail, Telecoms, Transport and Utilities.

Samir has 20 years of international experience across Europe, North America, and Africa. Is a regular speaker at international conferences, coach / mentor, a charity fundraiser, and youth champion for Working Knowledge - supporting young people to achieve their personal and career goals in life.

Samir lives in London with his wife and daughter.

Contact details for Samir

LinkedIn: Samir Sharma

Email: [email protected]

website: www.datazuum.com

In my fifth episode, I speak with Paul Morley about about his journey to data, three keys challenges in data transformation: 

1) Understanding of data, 

2) Fear (inherent fear of change) and the Fear Of Missing Out (if the neighbours are doing it so should we!), and 

3) Diving straight into technology without getting the foundations in place (my bug bear).  

We also discuss data leadership, organising data teams, preparing for the unknown and his views on the wideness of thinking across different domains such as philosophy, psychology and so much more!

Paul Morley, is Data Philosopher, Public Speaker and an executive at Nedbank’s Enterprise Data Services, leading a team of world class data professionals, and is responsible for delivering Nedbank’s regulatory commitments that govern the finance sector.  

He is also principal in delivering Data Analytical Services to Nedbank’s business clusters. With partners and consumers of the Nedbank data enterprise, being, Retail, Corporate, Finance, Human Resources, Compliance, Forensic Services, Audit, Group Risk and Group Technology.

With almost 30 years of experience in IT and Data, with IBM and Nedbank. He has been recognised locally and internationally for his participation, leadership commitment to innovative thought and leadership in the context of the global data industry and continues to be passionate and controversial about data and changing the status quo.

He also love’s walking around in his funky and colourful socks with no shoes on, as well as showcasing his extensive collection of “loud and colourful” shirts at the office. As you can see he always tries to be different and break the status Quo.

About Samir:

Samir is a data strategy and analytics leader, CEO and Founder of datazuum. He has a history of helping data executives and leaders craft and execute their data strategies. His passion for data strategy led him to launch, the Data Accelerator Workshop, and host the popular Data Strategy Show.

After a career in both private and public sectors Samir launched the datazuum brand in 2012, with a view to working with executives to deliver data strategy at a time when data was not seen as a business asset. Today datazuum delivers projects across both private and public sectors including: Charities, Financial Services (Banking & Insurance), Government, Housing & Construction, Law Enforcement, Logistics, Media & Publishing, Outsourcing, Postal, Retail, Telecoms, Transport and Utilities.

Samir has 20 years of international experience across Europe, North America, and Africa. Is a regular speaker at international conferences, coach / mentor, a charity fundraiser, and youth champion for Working Knowledge - supporting young people to achieve their personal and career goals in life.

Samir lives in London with his wife and daughter.

Contact details for Samir

LinkedIn: Samir Sharma

Email: [email protected]

website: www.datazuum.com

In my fourth episode, I speak with Matt Corey about culture and change management for data programmes.  We had a great discussion on how organisations need to start embedding change management activities from the inception of data programmes and how teams find their purpose for embracing data and aligning it with the company culture.

Matt is the leader of Data Focus, a Recruitment Practice, exclusively providing Data and Digital Health professionals to the Digital Health industry.

He has worked for 20 years within HR, Change and Recruitment in Canada, UK, US, Greece and France in the Public and Private Sectors and recently wrote The Data Scientist’s Book of Quotes available on Amazon.

Matt is also a Life and Business Coach who helps people and organisations better deal with challenges that requires change and ultimately leading to transformation in their lives and businesses. He is committed and passionate to help others reach their growth potential by working on the seen and unseen forces in one’s mind that can be a major blocker or barrier, until it becomes unlocked, when the transformation and impact starts.

You can visit the company websites on https://thedatafocus.com and https://mattcorey.com for more information and to contact Matt.

About Samir:

Samir is a data strategy and analytics leader, CEO and Founder of datazuum. He has a history of helping data executives and leaders craft and execute their data strategies. His passion for data strategy led him to launch, the Data Accelerator Workshop, and host the popular Data Strategy Show.

After a career in both private and public sectors Samir launched the datazuum brand in 2012, with a view to working with executives to deliver data strategy at a time when data was not seen as a business asset. Today datazuum delivers projects across both private and public sectors including: Charities, Financial Services (Banking & Insurance), Government, Housing & Construction, Law Enforcement, Logistics, Media & Publishing, Outsourcing, Postal, Retail, Telecoms, Transport and Utilities.

Samir has 20 years of international experience across Europe, North America, and Africa. Is a regular speaker at international conferences, coach / mentor, a charity fundraiser, and youth champion for Working Knowledge - supporting young people to achieve their personal and career goals in life.

Samir lives in London with his wife and daughter.

Contact details for Samir

LinkedIn: Samir Sharma

Email: [email protected]

website: www.datazuum.com