UK data science hub Pivigo has announced the appointment of Alex Willard as Chief Executive Officer.
Willard joins Pivigo from Imagination Technologies, where she was Executive Entrepreneur-in-Residence, identifying opportunities for the company, particularly in the areas of Software as a Service and AI.
In her role at Imagination Technologies, Willard built AI marketplace Kynisys.ai and was previously CEO at connected car platform Tantalum Corporation.
Willard’s appointment follows the departure of Dr. Kim Nilsson who will now become Pivigo’s Chairman, having co-founded the business in 2013.
Nilsson will continue to provide guidance and advice to the company’s leadership team.
Pivigo’s Science to Data Science (S2DS) programme is a project-based bootcamp that turns analytical PhDs and MScs into Data Scientists.
To date, the S2DS alumni network is over 700 strong. Pivigo has also delivered over 250 bespoke end-to-end data science projects for a range of organisations across all sectors.
Willard said of her appointment: “I am honoured and delighted to serve as Pivigo’s next Chief Executive Officer. The Pivigo team includes deeply experienced professionals who are already building the new products and platforms that we need to be successful in the long term. Now is the right time to deliver our ambitious technology vision. I cannot wait to get started.”
Dr Nilsson added: “We are delighted to welcome Alex Willard as our new CEO. She brings a wealth of experience as an accomplished technology leader and her experience will be invaluable. I look forward to seeing her build on the impressive milestones already accomplished by the Pivigo team and take the company to the next level.”
Pivigo has delivered 250 data science projects to 150 clients including Barclays, M&S, News UK, and AstraZeneca, across a range of data science use cases such as recommendation engines, text analysis, and predictive maintenance.
It also runs Europe’s largest data science training programme Science to Data Science (S2DS) that graduates PhDs and MScs into junior data science roles.