jameswaterhouse.net

James Waterhouse

Data / Insight / Strategy / Leadership

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Executive Summary

An innovative and passionate data director with 14+ years’ experience spanning multiple leadership roles across business intelligence, analytics, data product delivery and data science.

A proven track record in developing best-in-class insight, data products and data science models, with a focus on usability and driving commercial value.

Combines technical capability with creativity and commercial awareness to shape new opportunities from data.

Comfortable operating at all levels from C-Level down to engineers, analysts and execs working on day-to-day delivery. Able to build strong relationships that last, based on trust.

Provides strategic vision and thought leadership whilst leading execution and transformation to fulfill long term plans and concepts.

Experience

Director of UKI Business Intelligence – Flutter UKI

Oct 2022 – Present

  • Leadership of 90+ analysts and consumer research experts
  • Launched an insight strategy for Flutter UKI brands, including Sky Bet, Sky Gaming, Paddy Power and Betfair
  • Established a marketing measurement programme, helping to understand the impact of Flutter UKI’s £300M+ marketing spend
  • Mentor and coach to 6 Heads of Department
  • Member of the Flutter Leeds Leadership Team

Director of Business Intelligence & Data Strategy – Sky Betting & Gaming

Jul 2021 – Oct 2022

  • Responsible for SBG Business Intelligence and Data Product teams
  • Oversaw data platform migration from on-prem Hadoop to GCP
  • Led data cloud innovation work-stream, focused on maximising impact of new AI technology, transforming ways of working with data
  • Rolled out SBG wide data strategy
  • Exec sponsor of SBG Data Governance programme
  • Formed half of the product/tech leadership pair responsible for the Data Tribe

Head of Business Intelligence & Data Product / Head of Data Product – Sky Betting & Gaming

Oct 2018 – Jul 2021

Head of Data Science – Sky Betting & Gaming

Aug 2015 – Oct 2018

  • Set-up and led SBG’s first Data Science team
  • Pioneered in created a multi-disciplinary team of data scientists, engineers and testers
  • Introduced the business to the potential of predictive modelling, machine learning and advanced segmentation
  • Delivered 80+ predictive models, running in automation and at scale, shown at the time to deliver in excess of £4M incremental revenue p.a.
  • Established various academic collaborations with institutions including the Leeds Institute of Data Analytics and Lancaster University Data Science Institute

    Values and ways of working

    Values I try to live by and build into the culture of my teams

    Trust

    Trust is of primary importance for me; I want my teams and individuals to trust me and for them to know I trust them.

    Autonomy

    Everyone should feel they have the autonomy to get on, deliver and do a good job.

    Honesty

    Honest feedback is crucially important to building strong relationships and trust amongst teams.

    Creativity

    I encourage creative thinking and my teams to try think differently; both are critical drivers of innovation.

    Continuous Learning

    Time and space should always be made for learning and development. All learning is good, even if it’s not directly linked to role.

    Commitment

    Hard work and committing to the plan drive success both for individuals and the team.