Smart Data Foundry’s inaugural board announced
Smart Data Foundry just announced its inaugural board in order to accelerate its mission to solve societal issues though the use of financial data.
Member of the board are:
- Zachery Anderson, Chief Data Officer, NatWest Group
- Professor Kim Graham, Provost, University of Edinburgh
- Stephen Ingledew OBE, Chair, FinTech Scotland
- Fiona Duncan, Independent Strategic Advisor, the Promise
- Professor Chris Speed, Director, Edinburgh Futures Institute
They join Chair Dame Julia Unwin and Chief Executive Officer Frank Gauld.
Founded in 2020, the not-for-profit organisation, has delivered a number of groundbreaking data projects in collaboration with financial institutions including research into the impact of Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis on the over-50s.
Dame Julia Unwin commented:
“Our mission to unlock the power of data has struck a chord with leading figures in academia and Financial Services so much so they have been motivated to join us and bring about change. We have demonstrated that we can work collaboratively to create clarity through data which can inform policies and decision-making. We want to inspire financial innovation and with this team, I am confident this ambition can be realised.”
Stephen Ingledew OBE, Chair, FinTech Scotland adds
“Scotland has one of the fastest growing Fintech clusters in the UK, if not the world. Essential to financial innovation is the ability to access and share data, and the groundbreaking work that Smart Data Foundry is leading to create synthetic data unlocks the huge opportunities to inspire financial innovation that will benefit so many consumers and businesses.”
Zachery Anderson Chief Data Officer, NatWest Group said:
“NatWest Group were the first UK bank to partner with Smart Data Foundry and safely share data. Data helps us make better decisions and power research into areas that complement the wider NatWest purpose to champion potential, helping people, families and businesses to thrive.”
Frank Gauld says:
“This marks an important milestone in our history. As a young and growing business, to have the ability to attract such a talented board tells me we’re on the right track. 2022 was a year characterised by delivery for Smart Data Foundry.
“Our ground-breaking work with the FCA to generate and supply synthetic data to support their work to tackle the growing problem of Approved Push Payment (APP) Fraud is a great example of how we’re inspiring innovation in Financial Services. And we continued to support UK Government with a regularly updated COVID Economic Dashboard, creating an enduring record of how consumers saved, spent and earned before, during and after a pandemic. This level of insight is critical for policymakers to make decisions based on large-scale empirical data, no longer having to depend on survey data.”
