Gillian Docherty is a British

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...

. She is Chief Commercial Officer at the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...

and President of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. From 2015 to 2022 she was the CEO of The Data Lab, the Scottish innovation centre for

data science Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge and insights from noisy, structured and unstructured data, and apply knowledge from data across a br ...

and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

. She was appointed the first Chair of Scotland's AI Alliance in 2021, created to implement the activities of Scotland's AI Strategy.

Education

Docherty completed a computer science degree at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

and was awarded an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

in technology from

Robert Gordon University Robert Gordon University, commonly called RGU, is a public university in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It became a university in 1992, and originated from an educational institution founded in the 18th century by Robert Gordon (philanthropist), ...

Career

Docherty joined IBM in 1993 and spent 22 years working in technical sales, financial services, hardware and software. She became a UK senior executive and led the team responsible for driving IBM software propositions to Scottish clients. Docherty became CEO of The Data Lab in June 2015. The Data Lab was established in 2014, and by 2018 had completed over 100 data science projects in Scotland, estimating that it had generated more than £100 million extra revenue for Scotland's economy. The Data Lab has hubs in Aberdeen, Inverness, Edinburgh and Glasgow and as of 2018 had received over £25m in funding from

Scottish Funding Council The Scottish Funding Council (Scottish Gaelic: '; SFC), referred to more formally as the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council, is the non-departmental public body charged with funding Scotland's further and higher education i ...

, Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, and Highland and Islands Enterprise. In 2015 she launched The Data Lab's MSc programme and in 2016 doubled the cohort to meet the rising demand in

big data Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...

. She has spoken at many events including the Big Data Analytics conference and the Glasgow Business Summit. In June 2017 she delivered a

TED TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depa ...

x talk entitled ''2037 - Who's leading? Who's following?''. She won the 2017 CEO Of The Year at the ScotlandIS Digital Technology Awards. She is President of Glasgow

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to ad ...

, having previously served as Deputy President. In 2022 Docherty was appointed

Chief Commercial Officer The chief commercial officer (CCO) (sometime referred to as the chief business officer) is an executive-level role, with the holder being responsible for the commercial strategy and the development of an organization. It typically involves activi ...

of the University of Strathclyde. She is also a trustee of Beyonder Involve Charity, and works as a

startup A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

adviser.

Awards and recognition

In March 2017 Docherty was described as one of

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

's most influential women in technology. In 2017 she was listed in the top 10 most influential data professionals in the UK. In 2018 was named Digital Leader for the UK. She also received an Outstanding Achievement Award at Scotland’s Women in Technology Awards in 2019. Docherty was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the

2019 Birthday Honours The 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as ...

for services to information technology and business.

Personal

Docherty is married with a daughter who appeared on stage with her during her TEDx talk.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Docherty, Gillian British computer specialists British computer scientists British computer programmers Scottish computer scientists Alumni of the University of Glasgow British women chief executives Year of birth missing (living people) British women computer scientists Living people Officers of the Order of the British Empire British chief executives People associated with the University of Strathclyde IBM people