Peter Eckley
Head of Data and Analytics Strategy
Bank of England
Peter Eckley serves as Head of Data Strategy at the Bank of England, working to achieve the Bank's strategic priorities through the use of data and analytics. Peter originally joined the Bank as a Senior Economist working on prudential regulation policy and research in economics and finance. Prior to this, Peter worked as a strategy and policy consultant to telecom companies and regulators globally. Peter holds a master’s degree in Physics and Economics.
Learn more about leaders in the UK & Ireland CDAO community here.
Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
After completing my master’s degree in Physics and dabbling in the student start-up scene, I aspired to be a tech entrepreneur. However, I thought I needed to learn a bit about business first, so I joined a strategy consultancy in the telecoms industry, Analysis Mason.
As I worked all over the world, and increasingly on regulatory work, I became fascinated with the economics underpinning what I was doing. So, I studied for a master’s in economics – where I subsequently did a lot of research - and joined the Bank of England as a Senior Economist doing financial regulation and economic research. As a big user of data, I quickly got caught up in the Bank’s emerging data strategy, and after a couple of years became the Deputy CDAO – a role which evolved into Head of Data and Analytics Strategy and Services over the last several years.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
Ask, listen and learn. I can always benefit from the feedback and insights of others. By role-modelling this, I can encourage those I lead to do likewise.
With disruption being a key theme of the past year, where do you see your role as a CDAO going in the next 1-2 years?
I see us embedding the best use of data ever-deeper into business strategy and driving our organisation-wide data and analytics enablement efforts, accordingly. This will complement our historic focus on enabling the individual users and teams who ask us for help.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the role as a CDAO?
It really depends on what organisational context you are landing into. If the data foundations of your organisation are still under construction, then be ready to play the long game. Change is never easy, and developments in data and analytics cut across the entire organisation, making it particularly challenging. Crucially, you must pace yourself – it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Tell us 3 fun facts about yourself.
- I have twin six-year-old boys.
- I walk every week in the Surrey Hills, rarely on the same trail twice.
- I wrote a song that has sold something like half a million copies – this was in the era of CDs!
What is the value of joining an Evanta community?
Meeting peers. Being encouraged by discussing the similar challenges we are facing. Learning from what others have tried.
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