I'm Barbara.
An introduction
DATA CONSULTANT · ADVISOR · FRACTIONAL LEADER
I started in finance and accounting, and got pulled in by how organisations actually make decisions with the information in front of them.
Most of the last decade has gone on data, systems and change inside regulated, messy organisations: scrappy data, unclear processes, tangled systems, turned into something that works day to day. Financial services, the public sector and social housing. Fidelity Investments, Aviva Investors, UBS, the Department for Transport, Monzo, and others I can't name.
Now I do that fractionally. For businesses, I take the seat on data, systems and transformation. For founders, I'm the senior data and AI head you can't yet justify hiring.
I've built AI platforms, written specs that got funded, and led teams through data messes that had already stalled other people. I run Stratford Ellis, my consultancy. London based, working wherever the work is.For Business →·For Founders →
A brief chronology
- Finance and FoundationsNumbers, audit, and an early look at how organisations really run.
- Data and TransformationA decade inside complicated programmes across sectors, turning scrappy data into something usable.
- Independent PracticeOut on my own as a Fractional Data Lead.
- The Work TodayFractional leadership for businesses and founders. I own the call, then run the delivery.
"Decide fast, then stay until it lands."
Words from the room.
A handful of notes from leaders, founders and chairs I've worked alongside.
Barbs walked into a programme that had been stuck for nine months and had us all reading off the same page inside a fortnight. The plan we left with was the one we actually ran.
She tells you what she thinks. No fluff, no vendor agenda. Our board got a read on our data we could finally act on, and a short list of fixes we could start on Monday.
Having Barbs in the room changed how we made the call. She knew the context from month two and saved us from at least one expensive mistake on the systems side.