Studio appoints director of data

Accrington-based online retailer Studio.co.uk has appointed Gareth Powell as director of data to lead its newly created data team.

Gareth initially joined the company in June as head of enterprise data products and insight. Before that, he worked at N Brown, where he was director of data science, and TalkTalk where he led a centralised Insight and Analytics division. He has been listed as a 'Data Titan' in the Data IQ 100 industry list for seven consecutive years.

The new Studio data team brings together its analytics, data governance, data engineering and architecture talent. Part of Gareth's role has been to bring on board 10 new members, taking the department's headcount to 35.

He is also responsible for implementing a huge data programme, which includes delivering a target operating model, a data governance framework, an approach for data integrity as well as a new cloud data platform (Snowflake and Microsoft Azure). 

Gareth said: "Since joining Studio.co.uk back in June we have been on an exciting journey as a business. My vision is to make data and insights easy to access for our employees. A positive customer experience is underpinned by easy-to-access and good quality insight.

"We have successfully embedded a hub and spoke model for analytics which ensures we have close insight partnerships with our Customer & Digital, Trading and Customer Experience teams, ensuring we utilise data in the most efficient way possible.”

Paul Kendrick, chief executive of Studio Retail Group, said: "Gareth has a proven track record in data management, his skills are therefore pivotal to our ambitious plans to utilise data to grow and expand the business. We have already seen fantastic results from Gareth and look forward to seeing what he brings to an already strong leadership team on the challenging journey we have ahead of us."

Studio.co.uk recently reported having over two million active customers – a 79 per cent increase over the last five years. 

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