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As the CEO of Datahub Consulting and a data professional, I’m always talking to clients encouraging them to think about their business and their data journey. Encouraging them to be data driven and to put data at the forefront of their business. This made me think on my own personal data journey.
To understand my journey and career in data I started thinking about
Reflecting on my career, I’ve always been driven by a passion for data – its potential to shape decisions, optimize processes, and unlock new opportunities for clients. My journey began in 2002. Back then I worked for the UK prison service looking after prisoners in a maximum-security prison. I’d been there for 5 years and couldn’t see myself doing this job for my whole career.
I’d studied computer science and programming from school and the thought of a programming career inspired me. It was at this stage where I decided to have a career change.
I got my first job in computer programming in 2002 that focused on client data. This was C# programming to cleanse client data and optimize it for marketing campaigns. Around 2007 I was on a project where there was a need to provide historic reporting on some education data for a college in the UK. This is where I taught myself Business Intelligence and started to create an end-to-end BI solution. From this one project I know where my future career was going to take me. I’d seen the business stakeholders delight when I showcased the solution, using a data warehouse, a simple ETL process, and giving the business reports that they hadn’t previously had.
Fast forward to 2011 I started working for Microsoft gold partners delivering BI solution for clients. This was moving more to the cutting edge of technology and where I needed to learn the latest feature. I liked the role as a consultant and after a number of years, I moved to a global MS Partner delivering similar solutions. It was good at first travelling the world, working with clients in Europe, U.S. and Africa. But I found that with global companies you just became an asset for make money, not a person. I would be told on a Friday that flights were book for me to travel on the Sunday without any notice. These were not short trips but 10 hour flights with no return date initially booked. So personal life and family took a backseat.
This is when I decided to set up Datahub Consulting where I would own and manage the company but also focus on my passion for delivering data solutions. This allowed me the freedom to engage in projects that I like to do. It does involve international travel which I don’t mind, as I control the plans and schedule.
Datahub now has offices in central London and on a tech business park in Madrid.
With a business intelligence and data engineering background I enjoy training internal teams for clients and for this reason I set the aim of becoming a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT). A number of people have asked me, “what is the benefit of being an MCT?”. For me it was personal reasons. To train others you need to understand the technology fully to deliver content and answer questions. But also, I like training people. As a registered coach for British Triathlon, I’ve coached athletes for about 10 years. I’ve now maintained the MCT badge for about 4 years and still enjoy it.
When GDPR (data protection) became law, I realised that the BI work that I’d previously done would overlap data protection. I realised that even though data protection has been around for many years it was going to get bigger. I’d previously worked on HR, insurance, call centre, and airline data using business intelligence and reporting that included name, dates of birth, ID numbers, passport numbers etc, so I needed to know about data protection to fully understand the law regarding the use of personal information.
As well as being a data engineer and trainer, I’m also a practitioner in global data protection law. Now, one of our core services for Datahub is global data protection law.
From when I started Datahub, fast forward six years and we’ve worked in UK, U.S., Canada, Lebanon, Oman, UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. Even through Covid lockdown we still managed to secure work and deliver projects. The journey continues, and I’m excited to see where it takes us next…
✅ What’s your data journey?
✅ How did you get into data?
✅ Did you have any mentors?
✅ Was there a key milestone that shaped your career?
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