Marks & Spencer appoints first head of data science

Mehdi Hosseini has been appointed to the role, bringing experience gained as the lead data scientist at broadcaster Sky and research posts at Cambridge University and tech giant Microsoft.

Hosseini will oversee a team of 20 people who are currently being recruited. He will report to M&S chief digital and data officer Jeremy Pee.

Pee, who joined M&S from Canadian grocer Loblaw at the end of last year, is spearheading the digital shift at the retailer.

At this week’s investor morning Pee told shareholders that he had three priorities – to improve and relaunch the Sparks loyalty scheme, unlock value from M&S’s data and create a digitally ‘joined up’ business.

M&S has vast stores of data, such as the from the 7 million Sparks members and its 11 million online shoppers, and the 1 million customers of online grocer Ocado, which M&S has created a joint venture with.

The focus on digital is core to the retailer’s transformation strategy under chief executive Steve Rowe and chair Archie Norman. Last year the retailer launched the world’s first retail data academy for staff.

Pee expects Hosseini to play a key role. He said: “Becoming a digital first business is core to our transformation and as part of this we are looking to build a new, world-class, data science capability that can be deployed to create value across the business. I am delighted that Mehdi, who comes with extensive experience, has joined M&S to build and scale this new team.”