Nick

Nicholas Creagh A Chief Data Officer who enables organisations to achieve revenue growth and operational efficiency by harnessing the power of data and analytics. Core Skills & Career Highlights A pragmatic, business-focused Chief Data Officer (CDO) with extensive experience delivering the end-to-end data journey, including: Building revenue-enhancing data products: • • • • • • University of East London (UEL): Improved student retention and student outcomes, reducing revenue loss through the delivery of advanced analytics and machine learning models that predict student requiring an intervention, contributing to improved student support and operational efficiency. UEL: Automating the generation of marketing copy for courses through the use of Generative AI to, allowing a team of two FTE to maintain over 1,000 courses with no team growth required. QS Quacquarelli Symonds: Created >£10M in revenue enhancements through the development of a data lake, enabling centralised models, reporting and enhanced data science tools,. Pearson: Achieved 5% Net Revenue savings in the supply chain across multiple regions. World of Books: Generated £5M in additional revenue over two years through data monetisation. TES: Drove 25% growth in key recruitment metrics through targeted data products. Finding additional revenue streams in existing data sets: • • • UEL: Implemented predictive models for student debt and mental health risk identification, supporting student retention initiatives. World of Books: Generated £5M in additional revenue over two years through data monetisation. TES: Reduced churn and increased recruitment subscription growth via client-facing data products. Defining and executing data strategy: • • UEL: Led the implementation of UEL's Data Strategy and Data Delivery Framework, enhancing the university's digital presence and improving data-driven decision-making. QS Quacquarelli Symonds: Developed a pragmatic, revenue-focused enterprise data strategy, combining the creation of a new Data Lake and leading a global cross-functional team. Instituting a data-driven decision-making culture: • • UEL: Fostered a data-driven culture through the establishment of a Data Governance and Strategy Group, communities of practice, and staff training. QS Quacquarelli Symonds, World of Books Group, TES: Collaborated with cross-business stakeholders to enable timely, insight-driven decision-making. Establishing and growing innovative data and analytics functions: • • UEL: Established a centralised Data Lake and Data Quality Engine, streamlining data governance and compliance processes. QS Quacquarelli Symonds, World of Books Group, TES: Built and scaled global cross-functional teams of data scientists, analysts, and data engineers. Defining a data governance regime: • • UEL: Established robust data governance structures, ensuring data security, quality, and compliance while reducing statutory reporting costs. QS Quacquarelli Symonds: Defined and rolled out processes for mastering, governing, and cleansing technical data with minimal business overhead. Building business-focused data architectures that deliver value and growth: • • UEL: Developed and deployed a centralised Data Lake, integrating data across the university for advanced analytics. QS Quacquarelli Symonds: Delivered the OneQS Data Lake within six months. In addition, Nick is a rigorous and committed analyst, recognised as a thought leader in his field: • • • Regularly invited to speak at high-profile events, including the United Nations and the Royal Society, and collaborates with organisations like the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Education. Serves as a judge for the Data Leader Awards, identifying emerging excellence in data leadership. Strategic expertise across technologies such as Snowflake, Redshift, MS Azure, Tableau, Looker, Qlik, PowerBI, Kleene, Semarchy, Aible, SQL, Python, PowerPoint, and Excel. email.-mobile- Experience University of East London (UEL) - Chief Data Officer, (2023 – ongoing) Notable successes • • • • • • • Led the successful implementation of the UEL Data Strategy and Data Delivery Framework, enhancing the university's digital presence and improving data-driven decision-making. Developed and deployed a centralised Data Lake, enabling the integration and standardisation of data across the university, which facilitated advanced analytics and machine learning models to predict student outcomes and improve retention. Implemented a Data Quality Engine to bring data into line with regulatory requirements, significantly reducing the cost and effort required for statutory returns by improving data quality and governance, aligning with Data Stewardship. Established a Data Governance and Strategy Group, ensuring robust data governance and accountability structures that enhanced data security, quality, and compliance, aligning with GDPR requirements. Fostered a data-driven culture by building communities of practice, training staff, and empowering users to leverage data for innovation and operational efficiency, emphasizing Team Leadership and Stakeholder Engagement. Delivered key projects including machine learning models for student debt prediction, mental health risk identification, and retention/continuation analysis, which contributed to improved student support and outcomes, aligning with Performance Measurement and Key Performance Indicator frameworks. Achieved significant cost savings and operational efficiencies through the Data Delivery Framework, enabling real-time reporting, reducing manual effort, and supporting continuous improvement initiatives, driving Value Creation. QS Quacquarelli Symonds – Chief Data & Analytics Officer (2022 – 2023) Notable successes • • • • Defining group-wide data strategy and operating model in under three months; Completing the Data Lake delivery, including Master Data Management and Automated Machine Learning; Building the data function of 45 analysts, data scientists, visualization developers & data engineers, ensuring Accuracy and Reliability. Designing a Digital Maturity Framework for the Indian higher education sector, providing a Clear Vision. World of Books Group – Head of Analytics (2021) Notable successes • • • • Executing a group-wide pricing strategy, incl. price trials that achieved aggressive revenue targets; Building a Business Intelligence data product that increased revenue by £5M over 2 years; Defining a group-wide analytics strategy and operating model; and, Building a team of 25 analysts, data scientists, visualization engineers and data engineers, promoting Integrity and consistent progress. Times Education Supplement (TES) Global – Dir. of Data & Analytics (2016 – 2018) Notable successes • • • • • Defined and executed the data strategy for the organization; 25% growth in key metrics for the recruitment function; Reducing churn / maintaining growth in recruitment subscriptions; Identifying market growth opportunities through Market Segmentation, combining external polling, onsite analysis, qualitative interviews and advanced data science; and, Reducing turnover in the analytics division by creating clear and actionable career paths, supporting Monitoring and Responsibility. Pearson Education – Director of Data & Analytics (2013 – 2016) Notable successes • • • • • Realising 5% of Net Revenue saving in the Supply Chain by building a Cost-to-Serve model focused on Business Valuation. Reducing vacant space for an 11-campus international university through the application of genetic algorithms to optimise the timetable. email.-mobile- Improving the customer experience by developing a standard approach to customer analytics; Removing timetabling clashes in international exams, removing the need for costly call centres, demonstrating a strong ability for Performance Measurement. Establishing a global community of data scientists, economists, statisticians and data analysts for improved Data Warehouse practices. email.-mobile- Management Consultancy – Deloitte (2011 – 2013), Pricewaterhouse Coopers (2004 – 2011), Detica (2002 – 2004) Notable successes • • • • • Social Care – Using analytics to target learning programmes to improve social care. Warwick University – Supporting Senior Management in understanding how to transition to a Digital environment. Loans Provision Company – Conducting performance analysis and presenting findings to senior and ministerial stakeholders. Education Funding Agency – Identifying improvements in information usage for the UK HE Sector; focusing on Data Privacy and ethical governance. UK Examination Provider – Using operational data to develop insight and actions for a national examination programme. Non-Executive Advisory Portfolio (ongoing since 2019) In addition to these roles, Nick has built a portfolio of advisory roles, including: • Helping a UK NGO on artificial intelligence (AI) to describe and its uses clearly to a non-technical audience; • Advising an East Africa Fintech Start Up on how to use data to encourage product take up; • Judging the Data Leaders Awards; • Getting an AI advisory charity off the ground, including building the governance and leadership; and, • Advising a local education provider on government policy, data gathering and analysis, focusing on Self Service analytics. Education PhD Mathematics MMaths (1st) A-Levels University of Edinburgh 1998 – 2002 University of Oxford 1994 – 1998 Mathematics (A), Further Mathematics (A), Economics (A), Physics (A) 1992 – 1994 email.-mobile-