Data Leaders Who's Who: Meggy Chung

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meggy chung

Former General Manager Data Platforms, Westpac

Meggy Chung is a C-suite executive leader with over 20 years international experience driving strategic and cultural change across financial services. For the past three years, Meggy has been based in Sydney leading the creation and execution of the data strategy at Westpac.

Previously, Meggy spent more than a decade in senior data and technology infrastructure roles at Citibank in Singapore and Barclays Bank in the UK and, prior to that, in senior roles at British Sky Broadcasting, Accenture and Marsh McLennan. Meggy is passionate about inclusion and diversity and has played an active role in driving this agenda throughout her career.

During this interview Meggy shares insights on her mission to support women to succeed and break the bias:

What influenced you to pursue a career in data?

It started as a suggestion by one of my mentors when I was looking for a new challenge some years back. As I did more research into the area, I became increasingly interested. I spoke with a number of industry experts and university professors, and by the end of my research, I could see how data was going to transform every aspect of our lives, and I had my heart set on getting into data.

While I was determined to get into data, it was very hard for people who didn’t know data to get into data, especially in senior management positions. I needed to come up with a plan to convince people who didn’t think I was qualified for the job that I was the best person for the job - and I also created a plan to make sure I could be successful once I got into the job.

I feel incredibly blessed that I was in the end given the opportunity and I thank all those who believed in me in the process.

Meggy also shared her thoughts on:

• Why do you think that more women should work in tech and data science?

• Do you have any tips for women who want to gain a foothold in the industry?

• What do you love about working with data?

• What advice do you have for young women who want to work in data/data science?

• Looking back on your career, what is the one thing you would have changed in your working environment to break the bias?

• How can we better support diversity in an organisation?

• How do we create a supportive culture that is inclusive and diverse?

• How do we get to where we need to be, as a representative data analytics community?

• What are the current opportunities in the conversations around data teams, talent, and diversity?

“Don’t pay lip service to measures. Be daring enough to measure how ‘inclusive’ you are”

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