Leeds-based Data Consultancy, The Data Shed, has announced a number of senior hires as it prepares itself for robust scalable growth.
The past 18 months have been a period of rapid growth as The Data Shed has won several new contracts across different sectors including retail, health and travel, as well as generating further growth from their existing clients. Keeping pace with this, overall staff numbers have increased from 42 to 62.
Based on its continued success, The Data Shed is now preparing to scale with investment in the appointment of key senior management roles to ensure that the business has the expertise it needs to drive this forward.
New principal consultant James Mackenzie will bring his extensive experience in data consultancy having worked client-side for major businesses such as Asda, Tesco and Hallmark as well as award winning international consultancies Precima and Starcount in North America and Europe. Specialising in strategy and utilising data and insights to unlock value to create client growth, he will help The Data Shed to deliver the future growth plans.
Ed Hiley has also joined as the new director of engineering. Ed has previously led a number of national-scale data transformation projects within the public sector at NHS Digital and at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Ed will be boosting The Data Shed’s considerable experience in engineering and technical leadership especially in the area of health tech. Mackenzie and Hiley join John Ryan who joined the firm at the end of 2020 as Operations Director, bringing substantial scale experience.
Other senior hires include new head of marketing Rose Souders, who previously ran a successful marketing agency in the San Francisco Bay Area helping technology and business firms with marketing strategies focused on growth.
Anna Sutton, CEO and co-founder said: “Like many companies in the last 18 months, we’ve had the time to step back and look at how we work and who we want to work with. We’ve had a major focus on sustainable growth and scale, and as a result we’ve seen the business flourish in every direction: new clients and projects, an expanding team, and increasing revenues. Our new senior executives will not only help us to continue that development but also help us to attain some challenging goals we have set ourselves over the next few years. By focusing on building strong foundations with these new appointments we’re making sure that we remain true to our core values as we prepare to embark on the next stage of our journey.
"As well as achieving rapid growth in our consultancy model, working with clients from NHS Digital, Sunlife and GAMSTOP, we have also funded and launched our successful self-operated Software as a Service product, The Data Refinery. We’re confident that the next few years will see our business continue to thrive and we are setting ambitious yet achievable targets for growth as we scale the business in a sustainable way”.
James said: “Having worked alongside both Anna and CTO Ed Thewlis in a previous role, it felt like a natural career progression to join The Data Shed. With a focus on strategy development, my role will centre around helping our clients and partners to unlock the value of their data, and use data-driven insights to guide core business decisions. I aim to bring my extensive experience in the international retail sector to the business, and support them on their growth journey.”
Ed said: “I’m looking forward to bringing my experience to leading and expanding a group of smart and enthusiastic engineers who have a genuine passion for data and the value that can be found within it. My focus will be on getting The Data Shed to achieve the long term goal of becoming a beacon of data knowledge in Europe.“
