We meet Magan Naidoo, Chief Data Office of the World Food Programme. Magan tells us how he started out in software engineering but transferred into data when his bosses recognised his talent for connecting technology to business problems, and flew him across continents to have him lead on an important project. He talks about his desire to understand and solve problems from first principles rather than just do things on request. Magan gives advice to those starting out: figure out where you can add value, and work hard. He describes how important it is to really define the terms of engagement on any project, and not to presume anything. And he talks about his finest achievement being his current work building a future proof data organization to help solve world hunger.
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Matt Egan ( .162) Hello, hello, hello.
Welcome to First Person, the show where we meet the most interesting people in IT and learn from them what makes them tick by focusing only on their firsts. I'm your host, Matt Egan, asking you to enjoy, like and subscribe wherever you find us.
And if you are an interesting person in IT, do let us know. You might be the next First Person. The next voice you hear will be today's guest. He is Magan Naidu.
During a frankly incredible career, Magan has multiple degrees and has held many senior roles in many different countries. Currently, is the Chief Data Officer for the United Nations World Food Programme.
Magan is, as you can tell, definitely one of the most interesting people in IT, and we are delighted to have him as a guest on First Person. So, Magan, do welcome. And first up, what's the first thing people should know about you? Magan Naidoo (
.578) thank you, Matt, for that awesome introduction. I think the first thing I would say people should know about me is that I'm curious. I like learning and growing and exploring.
So be it in the technology space where I focus my time or if it's in other things that actually even have nothing to do with my profession, if it's understanding a bit more about the financial mechanisms in the world or geopolitical issues. Matt Egan ( .312) Mm-hmm.
Magan Naidoo (
.15) or even something as simple as travel destinations. So always like to learn and grow and ask lots of questions. That's, think, something people will figure out when they first meet me, ask a lot of questions.
Not that I'm trying to interrogate them, but because I'm trying to inform myself on something. Matt Egan ( .01) Amazing.
And you would be not shocked, I think, by the number of times when we interview people who are successful, that is a key trait, right? That level of curiosity and asking questions, sorry, and not necessarily specifically about the job, right?
Because you want that broader context and that interest and interest in people and interest in the trends of geopolitics, to your point, and economics.
So that's great and not kind of unusual and successful people, I think, and makes me excited to have this conversation because, Magan, I get to ask the questions here.
OK, so in section one, which we call First Things First, this is where we get to know about our guests by understanding some of their first times.
So I would love to hear if you could tell me something about your first job in this industry, like how you got into working in data and in technology. Magan Naidoo ( .684) Yeah.
So I think this goes back to, you know, even back in school and then into university. I always liked technology, science and technology. And, you know, even growing up when teachers asked, so what do want to be one day? I said, I want to be a scientist.
I didn't quite understand it, but I knew it's like somebody's breaking new boundaries, pushing the frontier and being at the cutting edge of things. I always wanted to be part of something like that. Matt Egan ( .229) Yeah.
.28) and the technology space and particularly data and AI is very much about that. It's very core to everything going on in the world. And I think most people understand it.
The interesting thing about it is it's not, especially data may not be the most glorious thing because it's kind of more backend thing, but more people have an appreciation that all the shiny front end things on technology or systems or anything you do in the world is, you know, the root of it is in data.
Matt Egan ( .765) Absolutely.
.89) and more so now AI. So, you know, that's really what attracted me to it. It's really the core of, you know, where if you want to do something, you've got to get those fundamentals right.
And that's kind of some of my leading principles is always about first principles. If you're trying to solve a problem, get the basics right, everything will follow. Matt Egan ( .765) I'm here.
Matt Egan (
.15) So, you were right from school days, it sounds to me like you're interested in some fairly big concepts like solving problems, like those first principles, but that doesn't directly lead to data, right?
So how do you get from, I'm interested in this to where I'm going to be is data. Is that like something you get for education or did you land in a job? And then that was kind of the piece that intrigued you. Magan Naidoo (
.186) That's an amazing question, Matt. So a lot of my formative career was in software development, building systems, and it was very much about system development. But in doing that, it did a lot of the backend, database, build, all the data components.
But perhaps not in the way people think of data today, ways now, but data governance, data quality, data privacy is a lot more mature than when I started my career. Matt Egan ( .207) Right.
Matt Egan ( .685) Mm-hmm.
Bye bye. Magan Naidoo (
.572) And I fashioned my career in that path over the years and did many roles in that way until, you know, part of the curiosity and wanting to experiment and grow.
At a time in my career, there was lots of demand for my skillset, which was very much in the SAP space at the time, locally and globally. So as a consequence, I had an opportunity to go abroad to the United States and work on a global project there.
But what was interesting when they hired me into that project, what they really wanted was somebody, they said they've got lots of, you know, of the different skills, but the thing that's missing, and I give credit to the leadership on that project, they said somebody who understands the business side.
and understands the technical side, which gets into the backend, the data. So for me, it was actually a little bit of a pivotal moment, also a scary moment, because I fashioned myself as a technology specialist, a software developer, an SAP consultant.
And then there's an opportunity to try something new, where they said, look, we're building this data team. There's going to be⦠Matt Egan ( .511) Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah. Magan Naidoo (
.206) core investment in just the data component of this project, but we need people who understand all parts of it and be part of this specialized team.
And there I sat there, and I think the colleagues who joined me on that journey also perhaps the first time in their career were reflecting on, well, I'm crossing over here, right?
So what if this doesn't work out and I derail my career because now I've gotten so far away from my core? Matt Egan ( .717) Mm-hmm.
.282) that it's hard to get back. So anyway, I took the risk and it paid dividends because ever since that moment on I've been in the data space. And that's interesting about the data space, Matt, once you're in it, you kind of get branded in it.
And I think even when I tried for different roles after that, everybody kind of looked at the data and said, we think it'd be a good fit for this data role. Even if you said I'm interested in some other role. So it's. Matt Egan ( .423) Mm-hmm.
.59) It kind of sticks with you and that's actually how I got into it by a first project that was very focused on data many years ago. They actually got it many years ago where some are perhaps only catching up in the recent years.
And I think once I got into it, it really hard to get out of it. Matt Egan (
.007) But it's interesting, So there's lots to unpick there. And I'm so fascinated by that answer. You know, that you were recognized as somebody who was able to give that organizational context to the technology, which is really critical in terms of developing a career, right?
You need to be able to translate the one to the other, right? And vice versa. But you also were interested, right? You started from that first principles piece. Like in your software development roles, you were interested in the data that underpinned everything.
which again suggests that you've got a bigger picture view. And also it was recognized, like somebody was there to recognize it. So that's interesting. I'd like to talk about that in a second.
And then my final thing that I'm taking away from that is, and I do think this is fascinating in the chief data officer role specifically, like is the path to it? It's not like you go to college and learn to be a chief data officer, right?
And then like, and you know, so many people we meet have been developers or they've worked in some other part of either the tech. all the business side of things and they end up as the chief data officer. But it isn't an end, right?
Because to your point, like you've got so many different skills and experiences that mean actually, if anything, you're qualified to take on a variety of roles at the C-suite level because of that background, I would think. There's no question there. That's my thoughts.
So you went into that data role and presumably at that point, Magan Naidoo ( .962) Yep.
.509) It's a risk, but it felt like it fit. You found it satisfying and you were good at it. Magan Naidoo ( .534) Absolutely.
I definitely found that I was good at it because, you know, once I got the hang of what we're trying to do, build confidence and then actually saw relevance in this going forward. I saw how pivotal and critical it was to success on the project.
And if you go read a lot of thought leadership now, I think in the top three reasons of why big projects fail is one of the top three is around data. There's not proper thinking around data. Matt Egan ( .969) Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Right. Matt Egan ( .821) Yeah, yeah, completely.
And I think especially, as you mentioned earlier, in this era of AI, in this era where there's a lot of hype and talk about AI, so many projects fail even before they get started because again, business to technology, the business side has a concept and doesn't fully understand that in order for it to work, the data side has to be, the data layer, the data operations, the data cleanliness needs to be there.
to support that output. So I'm guessing as well, like, and you've said this actually, but like the fact that you were then at the level that meant it was critical as to whether the project succeeded or failed. But also you're kind of seeing the whole project, right?
If you're on the data side of things, like if you're in software development, you might be just working on one tiny piece, but from a data perspective, I guess you're seeing the whole big picture maybe in that role. Magan Naidoo ( .392) Absolutely.
You spot on. mean, you're seeing the end to end and you called it out. You know, I like the big picture. I like to know what I'm doing.
So I like to know how the building blocks come together so that I can enable the outcome and not just deal with, here's a functional requirement, just do that piece.
And that's what I would always do if anything came to me in that role, any role before after that, I would always⦠Matt Egan ( .141) And.
.712) go to the originator of the request and say, what are you really trying to achieve? And then focus on that as opposed to just a specification which might be missing a lot. And I think data really gives that to you because it's really at ground level.
You look at it, there's even a phrase in the data world that the data doesn't lie. So if you look at it, this is a true state of. Matt Egan ( .767) Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Magan Naidoo (
.156) your organization, your inventory, your finances, et cetera. So it's kind of like a really grounded, truthful conversation that you have in that context when you're trying to do something. Matt Egan ( .045) Yeah.
Yeah. A really great data person. She's retired now, but I worked with for many years. Whenever I went to her with the request, she'd always say, sure. But what's the question you're actually trying to answer? Like what's the problem you're trying to solve?
Because actually, you know, the data person probably has a better idea of how to do that. So that's very satisfying. That's great. It clearly worked for you. I'm really interested in what it was, you know, who was it who earmarked you for that?
Like they flew you into the States and said, this guy is from the software development side. Magan Naidoo ( .606) Yeah.
.465) is going to help us solve our data problems. One of the questions we ask around this stage of the interview is talk to me about our first great boss.
Maybe it wasn't a boss, but like, you know, was there some somebody or some people there who recognized in you, the ability to go further and have a broader role? Magan Naidoo ( .714) Absolutely.
think, you know, in that role, in that con, I've had many great bosses and, even one in my current role and perhaps I'm not so great ones in between, but I think that many of us do.
So, but I think that in that particular project where, know, I made my first changeover into the data world is perhaps where I had that, you know, great experience of Matt Egan ( .95) We love that.
.094) even if you're gonna call it the first great boss or even first great bosses because of the nature and the, you know, the nature of the hybrid reporting lines or matrix reporting lines.
So certainly in that context, you going over, well, first, you know, as yeah, in my home country in South Africa and interviewed from here for that role and then moved over to take it up.
But, know, having been part of the team, started, I mean, I was new to it since I was relatively junior in terms of others who had been doing it before who kind of took me under the wing and guided me on some of the practices that were established in that space already.
And very quickly to your point, both confidence in me and gave me a lot more responsibility beyond what I originally thought I would do or perhaps they thought I would do and placed a lot of reliance on me.
in the data team as I picked up more credit, you know, responsibility and build credibility because it's an extremely intense space. You know, this was a lot more about data migration at that point where you're using big machines, expensive machines.
These machines have got to run almost 24 by seven because of the data sensitive processing. And then if things fail along the way, you've got to be quick and pick it up and get things moving. So. Matt Egan ( .038) I Magan Naidoo (
.894) I think the trust that they placed, I think the coaching, the guidance, and then just giving me lot of the freedom to execute was great.
I found that culture as a whole in the team, I found myself in and the person that ran the team, very mature, empowering style that I actually learned from over my career in terms of how I engage my team members. Matt Egan ( .786) Yeah, amazing.
giving you enough scope to succeed, giving you the confidence that you were responsible for things, but with the support that like, not just expect, we're not putting you out there to fail kind of thing. We're here to support you figuring things out.
Because to your point, you know, there's some pretty mission critical things that you're dealing with at that point. Like, and that can be quite daunting. It can also be quite, with the right leadership, it can be quite exciting. Magan Naidoo ( .476) Yeah.
.694) And yeah, I think that's something we can all take into our management and leadership practice. So, you again, one of the questions we tend to ask around now is about first promotions, first job changes. And we've had it, right? This is your change.
But then from this point to where you are now as a C-suite leader of a huge global organization with a very high profile.
And I know from your resume, you've worked in multiple different, pretty much every continent that's inhabited, I think you've worked on at some point, the kind of thing. So what's guided that? What steered you from that point to where you are now?
know, the changes, what was your instinct or your strategy around developing your career? Magan Naidoo (
.678) Yeah, it's been an interesting journey and I think good reflections there, Matt, in how you've voiced over that. And that's how it's been. It's very been, you know, journey of, of growing and developing myself, keeping pace with technology.
And I've always tried to keep pace with what's coming next. You know, it was SAP, then it was cloud, then it's AI. And I don't know what's after AI. And I'm now looking ahead to say what's coming after AI. But.
It's always been about that, which has excited me and energized me. And, you know, I've had really interesting roles working for global organizations and have learned from all of them, given that how they do things.
And I think given where I am now, in this role, it's very different in that, you know, for me, after I've worked for many years and in my last previous role, I was doing some reflections of kind of saying, what next?
You know, they kind of all start to look the same. It's a big global organization doing something big, depending on what they sell or produce.
And then the role that came up in that I have now, you know, I said, well, there's a chance to take that collective knowledge, experience and good will, because I've always felt, you know, I'd like to do good in the world with what I have.
So I thought this was my opportunity. And I don't think there's anything bigger than that really, because they have global scale, global impact. And I've seen it in the time I've been with the organization.
So this was a good opportunity for me as well to prove it again from the traditional commercial type lens into a different driver. And the driver being, how do you take all the skills of data and AI and impact the world in a positive way?
Matt Egan ( .531) Yeah, that's amazing.
know, we appreciate you doing that. And I can also see, like we go right back to the beginning when you talked about curiosity, wanting to learn, wanting to develop oneself.
There's a point where, yeah, all these things I've learned, all these things I've done, like, like what's my motivation to apply them? Right.
And it's very cool that, know, you can take all of that and apply it to a pretty fundamental problem, a problem that can and should be solved because we have the resources in the world to do it. And it's very gratifying.
to know that you're doing that, Magan, and congratulations to you. One of the things we try and do is not keep everything totally positive. So this has all been great so far.
We've been having a lovely time, but let's move on to our next section, which we call First Fails, because we're not only here for the good stuff, we learn more from our mistakes.
And I'd love to hear, Magan, anything you can tell me about the first big mistake that comes to mind from your professional life when I ask you that question. Magan Naidoo ( .192) Thank you.
Thanks, Mark. Magan Naidoo ( .386) Yeah, thanks.
That's a good question. And we all like to think we don't make mistakes, That we're perfect. And I try my best. But I think on reflection, there's many things I've learned that I wish I did that differently. And I've schooled myself since then and shared that with others.
But I think one of the big learnings for me, takeaways from that kind of dynamic was Matt Egan ( .598) you Magan Naidoo (
.806) you know, don't make assumptions, you know, don't assume others know what you know.
and I think also what I, you know, for me, I guess the biggest learning or where I made a mistake was assuming that if you have a conversation with somebody and you know, you're expected to deliver a project. Matt Egan ( .112) Mm-hmm.
.138) that naturally all the good will and all the financial funding and the resource and then everything you need to be successful will automatically follow.
And I learned that the hard way that you need to make sure you negotiate and contract those things upfront because once you say yes, there's an expectation and then⦠Matt Egan ( .347) Yeah.
Matt Egan ( .41) Mm-hmm.
.612) You find that, you're not set up properly because there's some gaps. Perhaps the funds haven't been allocated at all or appropriately people have been allocated.
And you find that in your mind, you're off the starting blocks and ready to go only to find you spending many months dealing with things that you should have called out upfront and, forced maybe the awkward conversations.
So that's been for me, why I think early in my career, think, you know, things might have. Matt Egan ( .363) Yeah.
.854) could have been done better where you you have to put it because there you're sitting with having taken accountability to do something people are and then placed you know making statements you will do certain things but then you kind of feel a little bit exposed that well there's nothing behind it now how do I make this happen Matt Egan ( .106) Yeah, yeah, 100%.
I think, and I think that's such a key learning for anybody in any professional life, right? Is, you know, with all the best will in the world, and you said it goodwill, right? You have the conversation, yeah, we're agreed. We're going to do this thing. Suddenly you're accountable.
And I, and I do feel like in my own professional life, like as I've gone on, it's, I've become more and more the person who says, who says right at the outset, right?
Can I just clarify what we're all signing up for, you know, You're going to provide this, we are going to provide that, we're going to do this, we're going to do that. And if these things happen, we will deliver that.
And I think early in your career, you just want to be so positive and you want to enable things and make things happen, but you're not actually helping anybody unless you do the hard work right at beginning kind of thing.
And I think there's also a human element to it as well, right? Everybody wants to be their best self every day. Everybody wants to say yes, but like actually sometimes the hard work is really defining. what's required and who's responsible and who's accountable for each of those pieces.
It's a really, really good answer, Magan, and I appreciate it. And it kind of relates to another question that we like to ask, is, you've gone through this career, right, you've got, very well educated. You've got these, you know, technical skills around software development.
You've moved into a data space. You've moved through large corporates. You've moved into the third sector. what's the first time you realized something that you thought you knew? Magan Naidoo ( .019) Take care.
.654) might actually be wrong, right? Because you've lived through an industrial revolution, really. So things you've held dear or you've believed or you've experienced, but actually change and you have to adapt with that. Have you got any examples of that kind of thing? Magan Naidoo (
.13) Yeah, I guess perhaps there's more in the latter part of my career as well where some of that must have come through is, you know, again having done the work, again you have this expectation that where you go to next that surely there must have certain things in place.
And I think that's why I've added that. So if you take some of the roles Matt Egan ( .134) Mm-hmm.
Matt Egan ( .704) Yeah Magan Naidoo (
.198) even some of the last previous roles and perhaps even the current one, one would expect certain practices and processes and technologies to be in place already because they've been out there for many years.
And then you go in with the expectation that well, all of these, you bank it in your head and it's like you're now operating beyond that level only to find that you've got to go a little bit backwards because some⦠Matt Egan ( .261) Yeah.
Yeah. Matt Egan ( .61) Yeah.
.686) of it, people have never been exposed to it for whatever reason or felt it was not necessary.
And then you've got to do a little bit of a reset in building things out that, you your thought is kind of a baseline for everybody, a process policy, a technology, even a basic system for certain things.
And then find that, well, I hang on actually, there's a bit of rework, there's a bit of Matt Egan ( .131) Yeah.
.454) if you want to call it education, to explain to people why you need to do this. And then you lose a lot of time.
And that's, guess, where some of, you know, leading to a question where you thought something and then it turned out to be something else. Where you start something and say, oh, this is a three month activity. Only to find three months later you're still trying to start it.
And I guess that's where there's been an expectation gap for me, where I think I've come short to say, well, hang on, this was significantly underestimated or very different to what I thought it was. Matt Egan ( .922) Yeah.
I think especially in this era of, as we discussed earlier, know, data underpinning everything, AI being such a prevalent part of every conversation.
Like I suspect you could go into lots of very, especially legacy, but lots of big, big organizations and find that very basic things are not in place from a data perspective. Right.
Certainly, like I say, data operation, data layer, access to data, data cleanliness, like because these are such kind of basics, but they're almost too basic, right? They have to be built from the ground up.
And especially if you've been operating for a long time and I'm part of an organization that's 60 years old, you might find that like things just aren't the very simple levers you need to pull just a knock in place.
And you as someone who's extremely experienced and wise, you might have to roll back right back to a very beginning status, which again is a learning, something that needs to be applied.
Hold on guys, we're not gonna go as quickly as we thought we are, because we need to do the basics first kind of thing. Yeah, really interesting insight. Okay, brilliant, thank you so much.
I wanna move on now because we have a section we like to call quick fire first. It's a bit silly, but it's where we want to get to know you behind and beyond your professional veneer.
And I'm really interested to do this with you, Maghan, you've got such a, your work life has taken you to so many different places. So we wanna find out about the real person. Magan Naidoo ( .864) Yep, absolutely.
.972) And to do that, use our own random question generator. please, you could, Magan, if you could pick a number between 1 and 15. Magan Naidoo (
.39) Go to number three. Matt Egan ( .151) Number three.
so you may not have an answer for this. You might. I don't know. This is one of those things. Number three is if you could tell us something about your first pet, if you've ever had a pet. Magan Naidoo (
.966) Oh yeah, yeah, I did. Absolutely. I did have a, it was German Shepherd. I had the second German Shepherd after, but the first one was German Shepherd. Really awesome dog. His name was Zenzo. I had him before we had children.
you know, he used to keep me company as to take him for dog training, obedience training, which paid dividends because he grew up into this really strong, powerful dog that you would never. Matt Egan ( .926) there you go.
Matt Egan ( .299) He.
.302) managed to pull so on command was useful. yeah, yeah, Zenzo kept me company through, you know, study years and all sorts of things. So it was really good having him around. Matt Egan ( .786) Yeah.
End's up. Matt Egan (
.146) A great breed of dog, Alsatians, German Shepherds, if well trained to your point, right? Because they're very loyal and they're very, very soft actually, even though they're great big kind of hawking great dogs.
I love how your face lit up when you started talking about Zenzel as well. That's obviously a very, very good memory. Okay, let's go for another one. Can you give me another question between one, another number between one and 15, sorry? Magan Naidoo ( .188) Yeah.
Magan Naidoo ( .022) 1 in 15.
Let's go with maybe 6. Matt Egan (
.038) Okay, I'm interested to ask you, can you tell us something, maybe it's a memory or it's just like some memories that you have of your first home, where you grew up? Magan Naidoo (
.75) Yeah, that takes me back, which is way back. You know, even in a different city in South Africa, which is Durban in South Africa. So, great memories, a really simple neighborhood. You know, no walls, no gates at the time I grew up.
Neighbors would just stroll into one another's yard and kind of everyone knew everyone kind of community. Matt Egan ( .73) you Matt Egan (
.642) Yeah.
.446) So yeah, that takes me back to, know, had lots of friends, lots of neighborhood boys that you go play sport, cricket, soccer, play things on the street, you know, and go out and do stuff.
I, to me, yeah, actually it's a very strong memory going back to my early years where I grew up. was a lot, it takes me back to a strong sense of community where people really, you know, joined hands and backed one another up.
And I still have a lot of those friendships today and every once in a while bump into these people, mostly via LinkedIn or Facebook these days.
But in person, from time to time in person and amazingly sometimes in a different part of the world, I've not bumped into people in other countries where you'd never expect to see them again. It's amazing. Matt Egan ( .341) Yeah Matt Egan (
.766) That's so cool.
Yeah, that's so cool. And like, I love that picture you paint of, I mean, we're in South Africa, right, playing sports in the street kind of thing. Such a great view.
But also that fact that you can meet those people who you've been close with at any time of your life. But I think especially in childhood, meet them at any time of your life later. And you just kind of click back into the conversation, the friendship, right?
That's a bond that lasts forever, I guess. Magan Naidoo ( .106) Yep, yeah, absolutely.
Matt Egan ( .242) Very cool.
I'm afraid to say, Mag, we're coming to our final section of the show and I feel like I could talk to you for hours, but we do need to allow the viewers and listeners a little break as well.
So we're going to come to our section we call First and Final Thoughts. And I'm super interested to ask you this question, given everything we've spoken about. But what is the first piece of advice you would give to someone who's just starting out today? Magan Naidoo (
.038) Yeah, I would say, you know, know yourself. So kind of know your strengths, know you want to know what you want to do.
So if you're starting out, you know, pick the thing you believe you can, even if you're not good at it, but believe you can be good at it. So pick the thing.
therefore say know yourself and that comes from your core and that belief will give you the strength to be strong and successful at whatever you pick. And, you know, just, you know, And I think, just stay focused and back yourself and make it happen.
know, often use the phrase, you know, believe in yourself and make it happen. So imagine it. So it's kind of, yeah, you know, imagine it, visualize it, and then put your back into it and make it happen.
I think that's the other thing, you know, just imagining it or wishing it's not going to happen, you know, you got to appreciate some hard work and heavy lifting is going to come with it. Matt Egan ( .76) Yeah.
Matt Egan ( .732) No, completely.
think it's such good advice. I think people hear often enough, and I think this is great, we should tell children and young people this. You can do it. You can be it. Because you can.
And especially now in a world where industries are being disrupted and transformed, but there's opportunity in that. And if you have a thing of value that you can bring to the table, you will succeed. But I think the second piece is also, and sometimes gets forgotten.
focus you mentioned and you mentioned putting you back into doing the hard work. And I think that's the other bit. We're letting younger people down if we don't make that clear. Like understand how you can add value and then work hard at it.
Like from exactly as we came in from first principles. Right. If you understand the problem and you can solve it. Excellent advice. I'm going to ask you my final question now, which is given this incredible career you're having. Magan Naidoo ( .463) is Matt Egan (
.334) What is the first project or achievement that you would want to tell people about? If someone said what's your masterpiece? What's the first thing you would want to talk about from your career? Magan Naidoo (
.544) So I've done many things, but I guess I would go to the most recent one, which I think a lot of that's come together. So where I am right now, we're building out a future fit modern data estate.
again, there's a lot of design principles around that about reusability, enterprise thinking, low cost, high speed, and⦠So basically for me, what we've built over the last period of time since joining this organization is building a modern data estate, which is the foundation for everything that needs to follow.
It set us up for success in that what we've built is completely reusable. You operate in many countries around the world, in 80, I think. So what we've built is completely portable and reusable with just minimal customization for any local country context.
And I think more than that, it set us up for AI ambitions. So by having the strong data foundation that we've built over the last many years that, you know, I've architected and led in the role I have, is now our AI ambitions follow quite naturally on it.
So we've already started to execute on our AI ambitions and can scale. And I think we're seeing great success in the organization because everybody's, when I first started it, you know, Matt Egan ( .886) Mm-hmm.
.522) There was lot of skepticism, but in the last many months, in last year, so there's been such natural gravitation to it, it's amazing. People are talking about it as if they crafted it, which is quite amazing. It's great that they can relate to it.
Matt Egan ( .446) That's amazing.
building from the ground up the machine that's going to allow the World Food Programme to really accelerate.
And the great thing is you're doing this incredible technical work, which must be very satisfying to hear that feedback where people are telling you it's their idea, which is a sign of success, but also it's going to do some real good in the world.
That is, I would say that is a masterpiece that I would love to put my calling card again. So congratulations. And my thanks to Magan and I do.
And thanks for watching or listening to this episode of First Person, the show where we meet the most interesting people in IT and learn from them what makes them tick by focusing only on their firsts.
I have been your host, Egan, asking you to enjoy, like and subscribe wherever you find us. And if you're an interesting person in IT, do let us know. You might be the next First Person. Magan Naidoo ( .321) Okay.
.646) But finally, only behooves me to say goodbye to all of you and my sincere thanks to Magan Naidu. Thank you. Magan Naidoo ( .4) Thanks Matt.
Thank you everyone.
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