Celebrating Diversity in Data

The UK data industry continues to show a 4:1 male to female ratio, meaning women represent around 20 percent of data professionals.
Early indications suggest the percentage of women in data roles in Leeds may be slightly higher, reflecting the city’s increasingly inclusive and collaborative data ecosystem.

However, national challenges with the wider Data & AI field persist:

1. 22% of UK AI and data science professionals are women.

1. 53 percent of organisations report having no women in AI roles at all.

1. 18% of users on major data science platforms are women.

As we look to the future, both data and AI will define the next generation of innovation. Data is the foundation of every intelligent system, from analytics to automation to generative AI, and demand for data skills will continue to accelerate across all sectors. Ensuring women have equal access, influence and opportunity within both data and AI is essential for building fair, robust and high impact technologies.

Leeds has a growing advantage. The city benefits from a strong academic ecosystem, a collaborative industry network and emerging success stories from women across data engineering, analytics, AI research and data leadership. This positions Leeds to lead the way in shaping an inclusive data and AI future.

Our fabulous panel :

• Cathy Arnold, Head of Data Services, Leeds University – Host

• Stacey Ward, Senior Data Director, cap hpi

• Corrine Richardson, Interim Chief Data Officer, Department for Education

• Paris Bielby, Data Director, CAVU

• Rachael Johnson – Head of Data Products at Lloyds Banking Group

• Charlotte Barnes – Principal Data Engineer at Hippo Digital

This panel is an opportunity to celebrate the success of the Leeds data community and the women driving it, while also looking ahead. How do we maintain this momentum, strengthen representation across both data and AI roles and ensure Leeds continues to set the standard for an innovative, diverse and future ready data ecosystem?

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