A Data Science & AI leader with a PhD in Astrophysics, extensive expertise in machine learning, and a passion for leveraging data and AI technologies to drive tangible business value. Throughout Heather’s career she has used innovative approaches and cutting-edge technologies to support organisations in gaining a competitive edge in the market, and has been recognised for her strategic leadership capabilities.

At Specsavers, Heather leads the Global Data Science, Analytics and Visualisation team and play a pivotal role in the growth of their 400-strong grass roots analytics community. She is responsible for shaping and executing the company’s global data science, ML/AI, and visualisation strategy: to centrally deliver high value data products using state of the art technologies, and to grow analytics skills such that high quality insight is generated in the business at the point at which it is used to drive business value.

During her time at Specsavers, Heather was personally recognised in the DataIQ 100 Most Influential People in Data in 2022, and the Global Data team have been recognised with several awards for their work both in delivering projects and in building a data culture and community that enables Specsavers to become a data-driven business:

  • British Data Awards Best Place to Work in Data 2023 (Winner)
  • DataIQ Data for Health and Wellbeing 2022 (Shortlist)
  • DataIQ Best Place to Work in Data 2022 (Shortlist)
  • DataIQ Best Data Story 2022 (Shortlist)
  • DataIQ Best Data & Analytics Team 2021 (Winner)
  • DataIQ Best Place to Work in Data 2021 (Shortlist)

 

Over the course of her career Heather has covered multiple business domains, with extensive work in marketing and customer analytics as well as finance, supply chain, clinical (including AI decision support), digital & ecommerce applications (including recommendation engines), engineering and RF signal processing. Heather has a breadth of experience of different company structures and verticals, having worked at a FTSE 100 travel company, a small tech start-up, a sports ecommerce scale-up, and currently at a privately-owned multinational healthcare & retail organisation.

In addition to her leadership experience, Heather has hands-on experience as a data scientist building data products and machine learning models in python and SQL on cloud platforms including GCP, Azure, Databricks, and Domino Data Lab.