My role
Dr. Andrew Howe is a seasoned quantitative modeler with expertise in the application of the mathematical, statistical, and computer sciences to data analysis. In addition to practical application, he has performed and published research on a wide variety of machine learning techniques. Andrew joined Wood Mackenzie in 2018 as a founding member of the Innovation & Analytics Lab (IAL). Currently a Director of Data Science, he is the team's subject matter expert for all technical aspects of analytics projects.
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How did you get started in data science?
I've always been interested in mathematics. When I was in high school, I used a cartesian plane graphing program on an Apple 2e to create geometric art, before graduating to a compass + protractor + drafter's triangles. I still have some of my early geometric drawings. My fascination with mathematics evolved into physics towards the end of high school. I matriculated to a liberal arts college, from which I later graduated Magna Cum Laude with a double major in Pure Mathematics & Applied Mathematics, and a minor in Physics. One of the elective courses I took was computer programming in Pascal; I was all over this like white on rice, and even spent excess student loan funds on my first PC (386, 66 MHz, 4MB RAM!). From this start, I picked up programming language after language, and also expanded to databases.
I made my first foray into real quantitative modeling in 1999, when I took a position with an investment broker in San Francisco to develop mathematics-based market trading models. This role combined my expertise in mathematics, computer programming, and databases, leveraging them into the foundation of data science - programming computers to perform mathematical analysis of data. As far as my career goes, the rest is, as they say, history. Since then, I've obtained my Ph.D. in statistics and worked in a diverse array of industries, in several countries, holding a variety of roles. The common theme throughout my career has been - and likely will remain - programming computers to perform mathematical analysis of data.
Why Wood Mackenzie?
To be honest, I was not previously familiar with Wood Mackenzie. In mid-2018, I left an energy think tank in Saudi Arabia, moved to Glasgow so my wife could pursue her doctoral degree, and was hired as the third member of the Analytics Lab. Our initial charter was to develop the first data consortium in the hydrocarbon extraction industry. This was certainly an interesting challenge, which I was quite excited to undertake.
How has the Analytics Lab and your work evolved?
In my view, the foundational goal of the Analytics Lab is that of creating and using analytics-ready datasets. The team continued to grow as we developed our pilot data consortium with five US shale operators. In addition to proving the value of the consortium concept in upstream oil and gas, our team developed substantial expertise and several useful pieces of reusable intellectual property.
In 2021, we leveraged what we learned/developed, becoming the Innovation and Analytics Lab. Our remit became to raise Wood Mackenzie's analytics capabilities, through collaboration with other business units on impactful analytics projects. While still hands-on with some of our projects, I have taken on much more of a leadership role, and am pleased to guide the team's growth, development, and accomplishments.
What do you see as the key highlights of your position with Wood Mackenzie and the IAL?
I work with a great team on interesting and impactful projects. Some enhance Wood Mackenzie's data, some enable people to work more effectively and efficiently, and some directly generate revenue. I've learned something in every project on which I've worked. In most cases, I've both expanded my knowledge about a specific domain and learned data science topics.
Our team values individual learning and development (L&D), and we put our money where our mouth is. IAL team members are not expected to only spend their personal time on L&D - we are encouraged to allocate some work time.
Another highlight is our team principles. We determined these ourselves, and they are truly embedded in our culture:
- fixate on business outcome
- sustain an innovation mindset
- cultivate constructive discord
- encourage curiosity and a "growth mindset"
- maintain collaborative habits
The bottom line is that I work with a great team on interesting and impactful projects, and have ample growth opportunities.
What are your ambitions for the year ahead / next year?
For the coming years, my primary ambition for myself - and the IAL - is to develop a reputation throughout Wood Mackenzie as the go-to experts in advanced analytics. A significant part of this is continuing education. The realm of data science and quantitative is quite broad and continually growing, so there's always something new to learn.
As the IAL continues to prove that we can successfully complete analytics projects, more is being asked of us. We have recently started getting more involved with creating something operational from our pilot and PoC projects. This slight expansion of scope is requiring us to obtain several new types of skills. Developing our proficiency in cloud technologies, dashboarding, cluster computing, and data pipelines is a major part of my ambitions for the team for this year.