Ciara Moore, Chief Data & Digital Officer for Bank of Ireland converses with Catherine King, Global Head of Brand Engagement for Orbition Group.
On Wednesday the 8th of March, our Global Head of Brand Engagement, Catherine King was invited to moderate and host the DAMA Ireland’s Women in Data event, as part of their celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD).
IWD is a global holiday celebrated annually as a focal point in the women’s rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women. Those within the data & analytics community like to use this day to mark the achievements of women in STEM, their journeys, and career highlights. The 2023 campaign was designed around ‘embracing equity’.
Catherine hosted the Fireside chat alongside Ciara Moore, who is the current Chief Data & Digital Officer for the Bank of Ireland. Ciara has been with BoI for over seven years and has a strong financial services leadership background with a 20+ year track record of successful delivery across banking and advisory.
Throughout the hour-long conversation, Catherine asked Ciara her thoughts on a plethora of areas, so we caught up with her to hear her highlights.
“I think for me one of the strongest themes to arise from all of the IWD celebrations last week, was the unique journey so many women in data have taken to get into data; very rarely do you come across two people who have found themselves in the world data in the same identical way”. Catherine goes on to say “Ciara was no different, showing us a very unique and exciting pathway into data!”
Ciara came from a business background, where she saw the clear demand and value of data, and moved into that space at the request of the executive board who could see the value her leadership would bring.
“I think the real danger is that people still in 2023 believe you have to have a strong technical background to find a job in data, and that just isn’t true!” Catherine adds, “There is also an important note to make here regarding historical constraints, women haven’t always been as encouraged and welcomed into STEM subjects at school, so there’s no wonder we have less women in data today, especially in senior leadership– but hopefully this is changing for the better”.
Within the interview Ciara shared with Catherine how she believes in a genuine customer-centered approach, and that if you keep your customer in mind, you will naturally begin to work towards some of the bigger data challenges such as bias in data, or products not reflecting all customers.
“Recently I have seen more posts about empathy and understanding than ever before,” Catherine tells us, “I think this customer-based approach is so crucial for data functions, to remember behind the zeros and ones are real people, with real lives, and we need to keep that front of mind or else things can go horribly wrong.”
One of the final areas the audience within this DAMA Ireland event wanted Catherine to put to Ciara was how to be a better ally. Ciara offered her thoughts surrounding encouragement, mentorship, and making sure your space is welcoming to everyone.
“I was so excited when Ciara mentioned Mentorship, as I strongly agree, the more senior leaders willing to mentor and give a leg up, to future generations, the better off we will all be!” Catherine adds “I also think this extends to everyone, whether it’s going into school career days, or offering an hour a week to interns in your business, you can make such a huge difference”.
We’d like to extend a huge thank you to DAMA Ireland, Bank of Ireland, and Accenture for extending the invitation for Catherine to host this important discussion.
