Meet the Founder
Hi, I'm Kauthar, Founder and People Data Specialist
"I’m a relentless advocate for doing data differently and making an impact that is felt beyond the numbers.
Over the years, I've seen gaps in how data/statistics are taught, learnt and applied in business, and how this becomes a costly factor that inhibits or, worse, reverses progress. Dehumanising data practices are relied upon to understand and solve human issues, data governance and quality deprioritised in favour of dashboards (under-appreciating the risk to harm this leaves on real people), and data storytelling that perpetuates the very oppressive narratives organisations seek to dismantle (more harm).
These weren’t one-off errors. They cropped up often, usually unnoticed, across different teams, projects, and industries. Bias, positionality, deficit-thinking, cognitive dissonance, miscommunication and analysis without context, were common denominators. It's multifaceted. It's a mindset issue. And you can't "fix" a mindset through meetings.
I’ve helped hundreds of professionals overcome these issues and build fairer data systems and solutions, but more needs to be done and at a wider scale.
My mission is to disrupt ‘data as usual’ and humanise data practice with critical data approaches, data allyship™ and psychology – to empower professionals, of all technical abilities, to use data to solve people-problems with a people-focused and social justice mindset."
Professional Background and Experience
Kauthar is a people analytics specialist with over 8 years experience across PR media measurement, financial services, professional services and higher education. With a background in psychology, Kauthar is passionate about bringing together critical data thinking, human insight, and data best practice to help organisations move from compliance monitoring to delivering meaningful impact.
Before specialising in People Analytics, Kauthar gained experience in Natural Language Processing (a branch of Artificial Intelligence) at Cision, where she transformed various text data into strategic insights. Her measurement study won an AMEC award for ‘Most Impactful Client Recommendations’.
At Deloitte, Kauthar was awarded for “delivering outstanding value” for her analysis that directly shaped the firm's three-year gender equality reward strategy. At The Open University, she led EDI data analysis and governance, trained over 100 staff in data literacy, and delivered transformative people analytics solutions that enabled over 20 departments to access EDI-focused workforce planning dashboards for the first time. She was instrumental to successful institutional and departmental Athena Swan (gender equality charter) submissions and action plans, and developed the university’s EDI data strategy.
Most recently, she established the first People Analytics function for the leading wealth management firm, Rathbones Group Plc, and launched firm-wide EDI dashboards and Women in Finance Charter monitoring.
Kauthar has become known as the ‘go-to’ person for inclusive data practice, attracting contracts with Advance HE to design race equality surveys for the higher education sector. Her approach consistently
bridges technical rigour with social justice, ensuring data delivers meaningful change to marginalised communities.
What clients have said:
"Working with Kauthar was really great. The entire team were challenged in their thinking and conversations were spurred for some time afterwards. It is my belief that this training by Data Ally really set the course for a successful Charter application. I wish we could have worked with Kauthar more but glad there is every hope of working with her in the future."
- Kellie Golbourne, Equality and Inclusion Officer (Race) at University of London
See more recommendations for Kauthar on LinkedIn.