DAMA UK Committee

Lisa Allen

Chair and Director

Lisa is a motivated leader who is passionate about data. She has experience across government and the private sector on a range of topics including open data, data governance, data cataloguing, GDPR, and data transformation.

Lisa is Director of Data and Tech Services at the Open Data Institute. She heads up an expert team offering advice and guidance to companies and governments to build an open and trustworthy data ecosystem both inside the ODI and out.

Mary Drabble
Vice Chair and Director


Mary Drabble is the Head of Data Governance at Royal London, responsible for implementation of a new Data Governance Policy and associated framework.  Mary has a proven track record in master data management, data governance and data quality tools, methodologies, architectures and processes. With over 15 years of experience in data management, she has helped clients across all industries in a wide variety of engagements ranging from analytical to operational data and information management solutions.

Mary joined the DAMA UK Committee in 2020 and became a Director in 2023. Mary administers the DAMA UK Mentoring scheme, supports our Corporate Members and is the Regional Co-ordinator for Scotland.

Chris Bradley
Director

 

Christopher Bradley is an Independent Information Strategist with over 40 years of Information Management experience. Chris and his team at Data Management Advisors Ltd. advise global organisations on data strategy, capability uplift, data governance, and information exploitation. Chris is VP Professional Development at DAMA International, leading the worldwide CDMP & DMBoK developments, and is an author of the DMBoK 2 and lead author and examiner for the CDMP professional certification.

In 2016, Chris became the inaugural DAMA CDMP Fellow, and Chair of the Fellowship board, receiving the DAMA lifetime achievement award for services in furthering Data Management to the International Data Management community. He is also a Director of the E&P standards committee "DMBoard", sits on several International Data standards committees, and has written several books and papers.

Sue Russell
Company Secretary & Director

Sue runs a small event management and business services company and supports DAMA UK and Team Defence Information.

Sue is responsible for managing DAMA UK. Her duties include managing membership, finance, the website, the design and layout of publications, and organising events. Please contact Sue in the first instance.

Nigel Turner
Director


Nigel is Principal Information Management consultant with Global Data Strategy Ltd., specialising in data strategy, data quality, and data governance. Overall, he has worked in data management for over 25 years. He spent much of his career in British Telecommunications (BT), where he led a company-wide data quality improvement programme and ran information management and CRM practices.

Since leaving BT, Nigel has worked in a variety of consultancy roles, providing help and advice to over 150 global companies. He is a regular speaker, trainer, and chair at information management conferences and events.

Mo Abbasi

Mo has 6 years of Advisory Consulting experience on large-scale, cross-sector transformation projects. These sectors include Health & Social Care, Life Sciences, Oil & Gas, Energy & Infrastructure as a Senior Consultant, Lead Consultant and Managing Consultant.

He is a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Design Thinking and Innovation and incorporates these strengths into his work, regardless of the domain being Process Improvement, Service Design or Data & Analytics. Intimidating topics such as these can be digested through the right story-telling and Mo works with his clients to ensure they maximise value in these spaces.

Mo has numerous emerging Technology qualifications – accredited certifications in Blockchain, AI, Design Thinking, Innovation and Digital and adds a holistic insight into the technology landscape, all underpinned by data. Mo is also currently an Executive MBA candidate at Cranfield School of Management.

James Adman

James specialises in data strategy and architecture and has 25 years of experience in data and technology across a number of industry sectors, including Financial Services, Oil and Gas, Government, and Technology. James has a proven track record of helping organisations to transform their data and technology landscapes to unlock the full potential of their data assets. James has broad experience across all data capabilities and has successfully defined data strategies, technology strategies, business cases, market appraisals, technology selection, enterprise architecture, and delivered a variety of data solutions.

James believes in the smart application of innovative technology and methods to deliver modern solutions and enable market differentiation, and has used data mesh and data lakehouse approaches as well as data science and machine learning platforms to deliver modern analytics.

Jenny Andrew

Jenny is Head of Data at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, working to modernise the data infrastructure and culture at one of the UK’s oldest professional associations. She began her data career with a PhD in satellite oceanography, followed by 10 years working in research data management for the British Oceanographic Data Centre, specialising in data architecture and metadata management.

Jenny brings experience of membership engagement and collective influence from her work among established professional bodies. She is an avid learner and has recently added the CDMP practitioner badge to her quiver of qualifications.

Sian Basker

Sian has spent over 30 years exploring new frontiers in data and digital technology and bringing the benefits to the nonprofit sector. She is Co CEO of Data Orchard an award-winning UK social enterprise focused on helping organisations get better with data. Since 2015, Sian has led Data Orchard’s pioneering work on organisational data maturity including the design of assessment and benchmarking tools, (on which the UK Government’s data maturity framework is based). She champions the ‘data for good’ cause through public speaking and training.

Sian’s roots are in digital access and inclusion having helped create the UK’s first public internet access programmes in the early 1990s. Since then, she’s held leadership roles digital strategy, business development, and impact measurement with local, national, and international charities (plus a couple of stints in academic research units).

Sian has an MSc in ‘Data Science and Analytics’ and a BSc Hons in ‘Mathematics and Science & Technology Policy’.

Tom Beattie


Tom has +30 years leadership experience across data disciplines including Data Management, Data Strategy, Data Governance and Engineering. He is focused on building high performing, diverse and inclusive teams who deliver data capabilities to improve commercial, customer, citizen and compliance outcomes that enable business strategies to be achieved.

His expertise has been gained through leading large data teams and delivering transformational data programmes (+£xxM), coupled by two Masters dissertations on data, and gaining DAMA Certified Data Management Professional status.

He has experience of working in both private and public sector and working with multiple disciplinary and blended teams including partner organisations, consultancies and technology vendors. These experiences have enabled him to consult, assess and author Data Strategies and then drive deployment with strong collaborative and communications skills to achieve measurable outcomes to ensure the data agenda is advanced and invested in.

Sarah Burnett

Sarah has over thirty years of experience working with data. She started her career in cartography and implemented and managed Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for many years, before moving to data architecture. Most of her career has been in the public sector, working on data transformation delivery for central and local government. She has also given lectures for Portsmouth University on GIS. She ran her own data consultancy business before joining Civica, where she is now working as a Principal Data Architect.

She is based in Hampshire and enjoys all things vintage - especially fashion and cars - animals, travel, cooking, reading, films, music, and walking in the countryside. She volunteers for the Sunbeam Talbot Alpine Registerwhich encourages the use, restoration, and preservation of the Talbot, Sunbeam Talbot, and Sunbeam cars manufactured by the Rootes Group between 1936 and 1957.

Suzanne Coumbaros

Suzanne is a data management professional with many years of experience in data governance, data architecture, data warehousing, business intelligence, data quality, and data strategy in a variety of organisations.

She has worked for many government-led organisations as well as public and privately owned companies across both the UK and Africa. She is now a Global Data Governance Director, focusing on Global Master Data Management and automating the improvement of data quality with artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.

Bandhu Das

Bandhu is a data analytics leader and qualified accountant with over 15 years of experience working at the intersection of finance, policy, and data. His mission is to mobilise data's potential for public good and empower people to use it in meaningful ways.

Bandhu’s expertise lies in helping public sector organisations adopt data and analytics at scale through visioning, funding, and operationalising data strategy, building business-focussed data teams, and driving culture change.

Bandhu is committed to continuous learning and enjoys mentoring new people entering the data profession and supporting data professionals in developing their business partnering skills.

Sue Geuens

Sue is the proverbial “dataholic,” and it shows. Being able to assist organizations both large and small to not just understand their data and why it is so imperative to manage it, but to also work out their best route to achieve this, is the reason Sue gets up and “goes to work” each day. Whether she needs to dive into the weeds with the data analysts and quality auditors to look at their data or talk to the C-level team about their data challenges and successes, she enjoys each and every part of this growing professional industry.

Every time she “talks data,” she believes that she opens the eyes of at least one person to exactly why she is so passionate about what she does. That person takes this knowledge back to their organization and does exactly the same – sparking the passion in the next person.

She is currently the Director of Data Governance & Product Data at Elsevier.

Connie Hedeler





Connie is a Data Architect working as part of a small but growing data team at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). She has been and is continuing to learn professional data management practices with the help of national and international thought leaders, including training provided by DataVersity, and applying it to improve data management practices at NICE, including helping to establish data governance and master data management.

Before joining NICE, she applied data warehousing, data integration, data quality, and some data science approaches to large experimental and genomic data sets as part of a PhD in Bioinformatics and 10 years as a researcher.

Sarah Higham

Sarah is a strong, independent data leader experienced in managing large geographically distributed data teams across the UK and India. She has a strong desire to promote the importance of data and to invest time in continuously enhancing her knowledge and skills. 

She previously worked at TalkTalk for 20 years, where she built and managed a Data Governance, Quality & Compliance Team. As a team, they saved £59m in cost benefits since the team was initiated in 2009. She joined Pets at Home in September 2022 as the Group Data Governance Manager. In 2022, she graduated from the Open University with a Business Honours Degree in Economics. 

She is extremely enthusiastic whenever she gets the opportunity to talk about data and knowledge share, therefore she created the “Data is NOT boring community” where data professionals across different industries can knowledge share, innovate, network, and support each other throughout their data journeys.

Tolu Oladimeji

Tolu is a data governance specialist and currently the Group Data Governance Manager at SSE PLC, leading the organisation’s data and information governance journey alongside some amazing data professionals in the ambition to drive a culture that helps make access to and use of data easier and to set SSE as a data driven organisation.

Tolu’s core drive is to help organisations in establishing and embedding good data and information governance practices through the establishment of foundational and sustainable data & information management principles such as data strategy definition and implementation, established and empowered roles, driving culture and behavioural change through education, clearly defined responsibilities, and processes.

Starting her data journey in Geographical Information Systems & Data Management, Tolu has over 15 years’ experience across various industry sectors.

Akhtar Uzzaman


Akhtar is a TOGAF certified Enterprise and Data Architect with 19 years of experience working across the globe on multinational data and digital transformation programmes for Bluechip clients. Akhtar has worked across various industries, both as a consultant and end user, starting with technical delivery roles across the SDLC and progressively into Architecture and Management roles covering the end to end Information Management spectrum from Data Management, Governance, Architecture, Integration, Security, BI & Analytics and others.

Akhtar is very passionate about bringing his all-round diverse experiences and expertise in the public and private sector to DAMA's mission of enabling organisations and companies to obtain maximum value from their data assets, making them fit and ready for the 21st century 4th industrial revolution. With his international network, understanding of eastern cultures and entrepreneurial spirit, Akhtar hopes to bring the best of DAMA to the rising economies of the East.


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