Gordon Baggott has been appointed as the Smart Data Foundry’s new Chief Data Scientist.
The Smart Data Foundry is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The University of Edinburgh and a private limited company.
Baggott will be responsible for the development of data science strategy at the foundry, driving forward research that promotes financial wellbeing, economic resilience and policy change.
“Gordon has more than 20 years’ experience across healthcare, banking, insurance, employing data science, machine learning and generative AI approaches to derive insight from all kinds of data,” said the foundry.
“He has helped pioneer the use of machine learning and AI in major high street banks in areas such as risk operations, insider fraud and cyber security.
“He is also the co-founder and commissioning editor for the Business AI Alliance, a cross-party parliamentary group which is helping small and medium organisations to safely harness the power of AI and drive growth in the UK.”
Smart Data Foundry CEO Dougie Robb said: “Gordon’s skills and ambitions fit perfectly with our mission to unlock financial data for the good of all and to drive real societal change.
“His technical expertise coupled with his commercial acumen will play a key role as we develop our range of data services into new areas.
“This a pivotal time for the business as we get ready to expand our Economic Wellbeing Explorer from Scotland to the whole of Great Britain and continue our work as the Financial Data Service (FINDS), one of the six research data services which form Smart Data Research UK.”
Launched in April, the Economic Wellbeing Explorer uses near real time data from over five million bank accounts to track economic resilience and wellbeing at national, regional and local levels and between age groups and income ranges.
Baggott said: “I’m thrilled to be joining Smart Data Foundry as Chief Data Scientist. It’s a great opportunity to bring my experience of analytics, machine learning and AI to help the team unlock the huge potential that financial data holds.
“With much of the focus of modern data technology being applied to the accumulation of wealth for the few, it’s critical to use our capability to better support positive societal change and work towards a more equitable UK.”