Helen Blaikie
Chief Data and Analytics Officer
Discover the women and men who are advancing the use of data, inspiring their peers, and transforming organizations as we move towards a data-driven future.
Back to listingHelen’s experience and expertise
Helen Blaikie is a dynamic and well-rounded business executive with significant data and analytics, commercial and finance experience across diverse public company and SME organisations. She is currently Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Aston University, where she drives the institution’s data strategy, fostering a data-guided culture that empowers informed decision-making across all departments. In her role Helen Blaikie champions the transformative power of data and AI, leading initiatives that enhance student experience, optimize operational efficiency, and advance research capabilities.
Helen Blaikie has a successful track record of leading teams in finance, data, commercial and business development environments, to achieve sustainable growth and increased profitability. Her expertise lies in building high-performing data teams, implementing robust data governance frameworks, and translating complex data insights into actionable strategies.
Recently recognised as a 2025 & 2026 Data IQ Top 100 European Data Leader, Helen Blaikie actively contributes to the broader data community through webinars, case studies, and collaborative projects, driving innovation across multiple sectors.
A word from Helen
“My core conviction is that data only has value when it changes behaviour. I don't believe in data teams as back-office reporting functions but as practical enablers of better decisions and better outcomes.”
Helen’s vision
How does your core conviction translate into your day-to-day activity?
- working with senior leaders to clarify what decisions actually matter
- ensuring business owners take responsibility for their data and its quality
- and building capability, not dependency, across the organisation
In your view, what is the key role of today’s data leaders in turning data into a lever for sustainable impact?
I think today’s data leaders sit at a critical intersection between strategy, culture, and trust.
Of course the technical foundations matter – governance, architecture, AI capability – but sustainable impact comes from three things:
- Clarity of purpose: linking data directly to organizational outcomes, whether that’s student success, financial resilience, or societal value.
- Capability at scale: moving beyond centers of excellence to embed data literacy and confidence across the workforce so that decisions improve everywhere, not just at the top.
- Responsible leadership: particularly with AI, ensuring transparency, ethics, and human judgement remain front and centre.
In higher education especially, I see data leaders as stewards, balancing innovation with accountability, and short-term performance with long-term public good. When done well, data becomes a lever not just for efficiency, but for inclusion, opportunity, and evidence-based change.
Helen’s inspirations
People who inspire me
Rather than being inspired by a single individual, I’m fortunate to be surrounded by an exceptional community of data leaders through the data communities I’m part of. Actively meeting, discussing and collaborating at conferences, workshops and roundtables is critical for me as it continually expands my thinking and challenges my assumptions.
Podcasts that inspire me
In terms of learning, I regularly recommend podcasts which explore the real leadership and cultural challenges behind data transformation such as:
- Hub & Spoken by Cynozure
- The Driven by Data series from Orbition
Books that inspire me
I also have a small set of go-to books I return to often, particularly:
- Jordan Morrow’s data literacy trilogy (Be Data Literate, Be Data Driven and Be Data Analytical )
- Caroline Carruthers and Peter Jackson’s Chief Data Officer’s Playbook and Data Driven Organisations
- Jason Foster and Barry Green’s Data Means Business
- The Data & AI Literacy Handbook led by Greg Freeman (which I recently contributed to)
- Tiankai Feng’s Humanizing Data Strategy
- Roberto Maranca’s Data Strategy: From Definition to Execution
My favorite quote
My all-time favourite quote is simply
“Data is a team sport”
I use it weekly as a reminder that success or failure in data is determined far less by technology and far more by how effectively people work together.
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