Kathy Clark | Data Enablement | PwC

 

I have always had a love for technology and data. I started my career in London as an IT helpdesk analyst and quickly progressed at a young age of 22 to leading the contract between an outsourcer and a large financial firm. I faced a number of challenges being a young leader but this foundation has always stuck with me, that if you work hard, develop others and have a passion for what you do, you can achieve your goals to be successful no matter what age you are.

Soon after my children arrived, I needed to take a step back and relocate to my home in the north west, back then there was less flexibility to work full time, be a leader and have the flexibility to focus on your family. I took a few years out of work to support my sons to a school age and by then I was concerned I had missed out on my career as a technology leader. I rose above my concerns and believed in myself to go for it and leave the imposter syndrome behind. It was shortly after that I successfully restarted my career leading a data department for a large financial firm. Here I managed large data change projects and used technology to reduce costs and drive efficiency, which had an impact globally on the way the firm worked and massively improved customer service. In 2017 I was lucky to join my current firm as a people manager where I had the opportunity to upskill others on their digital journey and encouraged them to see the importance of gaining a digital mindset to continue to upskill. I created and led a digital upskilling programme and introduced dashboards to support Team leaders development (these are still live today). 2 years ago I was delighted to join the Chief Data Office where I was able to continue my own learning journey in data and technology. After the 1st year I was promoted to senior manager and I’m proud to have led the ESG Data priority and uncovered the complex ESG Data landscape, which has upskilled many teams and enabled their priorities. I have become an ESG data expert in the firm and will be stepping up in the next month to be the Global Sustainability Data leader.

I’m very proud of my career journey in technology and data and how I continued from a young age to believe in myself, committed to lead by example, continued to upskill and evolved my career in tech/data led roles. I’m proud I have a strength for coaching people and many of my coachees over the years have been successful in technology careers through my support and encouragement to deliver and achieve their goals.

I’m looking forward to what the next couple of years will bring and I’m still determined to continuously upskill and build on myself and develop others along the way.

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