DataComms Awards

Sarah Brown is a marketing and communications leader with a strong track record of delivering impactful campaigns for household name brands across leisure, tourism, and healthcare. She is the Senior Marketing & Brand Manager at Helping Hands Home Care, a leading home care provider with 150 branches across the UK.

Sarah has a robust foundation in consumer marketing and establishing brand communications campaigns that drive tangible business results. With an impressive background composing global communications for Merlin Entertainments and previously, across iconic UK attractions including the world’s largest aquarium brand, SEA LIFE, LEGOLAND Discovery Centre, the Dungeons and Warwick Castle, she is a true expert of crafting captivating campaigns. Her expertise lies in the art of infusing brand messaging into consumer markets through compelling storytelling and multi-faceted campaigns. An advocate for data-driven strategies, she specialises in leveraging insights and AI to enhance brand reputation management and drive business performance.

Bio to follow soon…

Rob Holtom is Executive Director of Digital, Data, Technology and Transformation and Delivery at the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Rob is responsible for how digital services, data capabilities and technology underpin the ICO’s operations and strategic transformation.

Rob is a returning judge and was involved in last year’s DataComms awards.

Marius is an accomplished Data Science leader with over 14 years of expertise in driving business growth through innovative data science solutions. As Senior Data Science Manager at Visa, he has successfully led initiatives and teams across product and corporate strategy and is currently optimising marketing’s initiatives and embedding data-driven decision-making across the business. With a proven ability to translate complex data into actionable insights and compelling narratives, he specialises in data science, machine learning applications, data storytelling and leadership. Passionate about innovation, Marius is dedicated to advancing excellence in data-driven decision-making.

With ten years of experience in data analytics, audit, and governance, Jade is a passionate and proficient Metadata & Data Quality Manager at Sainsbury’s, one of the UK’s leading retailers, and recently nominated as a Top Twenty Rising Star in Data & Analytics in 2024. Jade leads a function responsible for developing and rolling out a successful data cataloguing and data quality programme to over 5000 users across the Sainsbury’s Group, with the objective of promoting high quality, trusted, and reliable data for consumption by a culture of data fluent colleagues. Jade’s mission is to leverage her data analytics and governance expertise to deliver game-changing insights and solutions that enhance business performance and customer satisfaction.

Matt Large is a 25-year veteran in the data world. Over the past 7 years as Director of Data at student discount platform UNiDAYS, he led the implementation of their data lakehouse strategy, most recently the provision of a new data catalogue. His previous roles include heading up solution architecture at Black Swan Data, BI/Big Data projects at Channel 4, and several years in the MI group at PA Consulting.

As MTN Group Fintech’s Corporate Affairs and PR Manager, Bernice has a purposeful approach towards diverse situational challenges and the ability to thrive in fast-paced, technology driven environments. As a highly creative and innovative professional, with sharp commercial acumen, she has pioneered communications encompassing public relations, content marketing, digital marketing, personal branding, internal and external corporate communication strategies for stakeholders whilst significantly contributing to the overall momentum of the organisation as a whole.

As an accomplished communications specialist, writer, journalist and marketer who holds a Media and Journalism Honours degree from Wits and a Masters in Social Sciences from France Based University of Burgundy, Bernice has empowered others by leading by example, overcoming hurdles in pursuit of achievement and consistently ensuring excellence in all that she does. With dynamic written and verbal communication management skills, Bernice effectively develops, motivates and contributes meaningfully to multicultural teams. She appropriately engages at all levels within an organisation, and positively liaises with stakeholders, ensuring the clarity of organisational goals and alignment of key strategies at all times.

Leigh has worked for 15 years in data-focused roles for non-profit organisations – across fundraising insight, business analysis, business intelligence, and digital transformation. He currently works for The British Academy on data integration projects designed to mobilise the humanities and social sciences by transforming organisational fundraising and strengthening investment in research. Leigh is Vice-Chair of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising Data Insight Committee, which showcases best practice and celebrates data-driven insights within the charity sector. Leigh sits on the Advisory Board of the International Flag of Planet Earth, the global social impact organisation. He is also CEO of the Flag Institute, a small educational non-profit, allowing him to revel in his hobby while advising the UK government, Parliament and diplomatic services, academic and cultural institutions, businesses, and the wider public.

Claire is a strategic communications leader with over 20 years of experience in the charity sector. Currently Interim Deputy Director, Communications at the National Lottery Community Fund, her expertise lies in creating high-performing teams to deliver strategically aligned, engaging communications activities. She is passionate about the importance of effective use of data and insight, whether in creating audience-led campaigns, understanding impact, or building a case for change.

Prior to joining the National Lottery Community Fund, Claire spent most of her career at Macmillan Cancer Support, where she led multi-disciplinary communications teams across all four nations of the UK to deliver Macmillan’s ambition to reach everyone living with cancer with the support that they need.

The Doyle Collection is a carefully curated collection of eight Irish family-owned luxury and urban hotels located centrally in London, Dublin, Washington DC, Cork and Bristol. Alex is responsible for leading the development and execution of The Doyle Collection group’s customer insight and data strategy.
Having held a selection of leadership roles across the insights industry, on both the client and agency side of the sector, Alex has worked with an all-encompassing range of clients and projects. He has built a career driving the leading edge of research; the achievements of his work, and that of the teams he has built, have been recognised by the industry many times over.
He is a representative for the European Society for Opinion and Market Research and plays an advisory role in many other industry organisations and bodies. He is a graduate of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method from the London School of Economics.

Jonathan is an adaptable and collaborative leader of communications teams in the research sector. He sits on the Senior Leadership Team at Health Data Research UK and leads an excellent team in sharing how health data research and innovations are making a tangible difference to people’s lives.

He has over 20 years’ experience of communicating high-profile research with accuracy and impact to multiple audiences, having worked at a range of science and research organisations including the British Ecological Society, the Francis Crick Institute, NHS England, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Oxford University. He started out writing for a magazine called Materials Today longer ago than he cares to remember, has a physics degree from Cambridge and a PhD in structural biology from the University of Leeds.