Jason du Preez, co-founder and chief executive officer, Privitar

How is your organisation using data and analytics to support the corporate vision and purpose?

Privitar enables organisations to use sensitive data for analytics and machine learning in a safe and ethical way.

2020 was a year like no other - how did it impact on your planned activities and what unplanned ones did you have to introduce?

During this challenging period, Privitar has continued to invest significantly in its products to ensure it can effectively serve customers that are seeing an acceleration of their digital transformation initiatives as a result of Covid-19.

Is data for good part of your personal or business agenda for 2021? If so, what form will it take?

Privitar exists to enable a sustainable and enduring data-ecosystem built on trust. We are here to assist our customers in ensuring data is used safely and ethically.

What has been your path to power?

I started m35, an enterprise software company focused on data orchestration and automation early in my career. I sold this company to Thomson Reuters, where I held a global position for a few years before starting again with Privitar.

What is the proudest achievement of your career to date?

My greatest feeling of success comes from creating – I feel like my proudest moments are those where I have worked with my teams to launch new products, services, or businesses.

Tell us about a career goal or a purpose for your organisation that you are pursuing?

At Privitar, we are working to ensure all organisations can realise the value of data – whether it be to improve customer experience, fight fraud or cure rare diseases – in a safe and ethical way.

How closely aligned to the business are data and analytics both within your own organisation and at an industry level? What helps to bring the two closer together?

I think that the aspirations for data-driven decision making need to be developed in close concert with the business. Platforms and capabilities need to be rolled out in conjunction with demand and aligned to use cases that return value.

What is your view on how to develop a data culture in an organisation, building out data literacy and creating a data-first mindset?

The reality is that data can be a huge liability. When things go wrong the consequences can be catastrophic. Over 150 countries worldwide now have data privacy laws, with regulators ready to issue fines. Customers abandon companies they don’t trust, and the cost of a breach includes fines, business interruption, and lost business. So, we want to focus on data as an asset. We want to mine and refine this resource and use it to drive business advantage. Increasingly sophisticated use of data opens up the opportunity for new use cases and new value.