Katia Walsh leads strategy, data, analytics, and artificial intelligence at LS&Co. She focuses on setting the company's holistic digital and corporate strategy and infusing it with data, analytic, and artificial intelligence capabilities to drive business value across LS&Co. globally. The impact ranges from innovation incubation to strategic growth initiatives, new business models, and new ways of working.

Katia has more than 20 years of cross-industry experience combining strategy, data, analytics, and machine learning, and a track record of making global brands indispensable to their customers through these capabilities.

Prior to joining LS&Co., Katia was the first Chief Global Data and Analytics Officer of Vodafone Group, responsible for providing a predictive, proactive, and personalized experience as part of the company’s digital transformation. She and her team also contributed to the use of data and artificial intelligence for research innovation and social good.

Before that, Katia held strategic data analytics leadership positions and drove customer-centric innovations at Prudential Financial, where she launched data and analytics as part of its digital transformation; Fidelity Investments, where she pioneered a data-driven customer experience; and Forrester Research, Inc., where she helped businesses thrive on technology change.

Katia is a member of UniCredit’s Transformation and Innovation Advisory Board, as well as a Strategy Advisor to Fellowship.ai, a nonprofit data science training program. She was named the UK’s Data Leader of the Year for the past three years by the Women in IT Awards series and is passionate about encouraging diversity and mentoring youth.

Katia holds a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia in Strategic Communication with a specialization in quantitative methodology.