Cochlear lands new data VP

Cochlear has appointed former Westpac data platforms head Malcolm Wanstall to oversee its data strategy and build out its data and analytics ecosystem.

Malcolm Wanstall (Credit: LinkedIn)

A Cochlear spokesperson told iTnews Wanstall’s appointment “is a globally focused enterprise-wide role”.

“[It] will lead the development and manage the implementation of the data strategy across Cochlear [and] work directly with executives, senior management and functional teams across the organisation to find strategic growth opportunities, using data, insights and advanced analytics [to] drive new innovation and better business decisions," the spokesperson said.

“[Wanstall] will help create and maintain a data-centric culture across Cochlear globally whilst working closely with technology to evolve and enhance Cochlear’s data and analytics ecosystem."

The Cochlear spokesperson added Wanstall’s “15-plus years of experience leading global organisations to become data-inspired, value-driven and customer insight centric” made him an ideal appointment.

Wanstall posted on LinkedIn that he was leaving Westpac “after five amazing, stressful, fulfilling and rewarding years”.

“In the past five years I've had the pleasure of growing a team of 20-odd bright-eyed and bushy-tailed big data engineers into a force of over 1000 data engineers, scientists, analysts and product owners," he wrote.

“Our capability has set the pace for the industry and innovation and evolution has been business-as-usual for us.

"Five years of sustained and quality high pace - that's an achievement worth reflecting on. I can't begin to say how proud I am of my entire team,” Wanstall wrote.

Wanstall listed achievements reached during his time at Westpac including setting up its “big data platform (DDEP)”, completed a successful cloud migration and developing customer ‘nudges’ alongside multiple other data initiatives.  

A undisclosed member of the Westpac team has stepped in an acting capacity while the bank recruits for a replacement.

Prior to joining Westpac back in 2018, Wanstall worked at The Smith Family as head of data for over two-and-a-half years.

He has also headed data-first roles at TAL and Medibank.