UNSW's chief data officer retires

UNSW chief data and insights officer Kate Carruthers has announced her retirement after almost a decade in the role.

Kate Carruthers.
Kate Carruthers

Under Carruthers' leadership, the university implemented an institution-wide data and information strategy, spanning governance, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data quality processes.

She - together with a data platform team - is also credited with taking the university from a traditional enterprise data warehouse to a cloud-based data platform based on Microsoft Azure and Databricks.

Speaking to iTnews, Carruthers said the implementation had allowed UNSW "to fully harness the opportunities presented by the AI revolution, utilising enterprise data effectively”.

“I take great pride in my contributions at UNSW, particularly in establishing a contemporary data and analytics function and initiating our data governance program,” she said.

“I want to express my deep appreciation for my dedicated data platform team.

"Their relentless innovation and openness to every new idea have been instrumental to this success.”

Carruthers also oversaw the development of a suite of reporting dashboards which are used by UNSW’s faculties and divisions.

She will continue to teach data governance and AI courses at UNSW’s Australian Graduate School of Management.

A university spokesperson did not address questions about succession plans, nor if anyone is acting in the role, when contacted by iTnews.

“[Carruthers’] leadership and dedication have been instrumental in driving our strategic data initiatives forward,” a UNSW spokesperson said.

UNSW’s technology leadership is currently under the purview of Chrissy Burns, who joined the university as CIO in 2022.