Fifteen years ago, I’d just finished a year’s post-doctoral research alongside Mike Tipping, Bernhard Scholkopf and Ralf Herbrich at Microsoft Research Cambridge. It was perhaps the most stimulating year of my career. I turned up at Sheffield as a new lecturer in and unfamiliar department, unsure about what my future held.

I felt ill equipped to carry out an academic career, if I’d had the option to continue in industrial research, I would have. But in those days there were only a few far-seeing companies interested in machine learning.

Across my time at Sheffield, and the five years I spent at Manchester, I’ve learned how to lead on research, both within my group, and (sometimes I hope!) how to steer the community. I’m extremely proud of the students I may have assisted with their faltering first steps in research, and of post-doctoral researchers who I had the privilege to work alongside.

From September this year, I’ve decided to continue that journey in collaboration with Amazon. I feel extremely lucky to have been offered an opportunity to lead Amazon’s UK machine learning efforts.

In machine learning and data science, the essence of the relationship between academia and industry is changing. Amazon has a vital role at the forefront of that change and I’m very excited by the potential I’m convinced that Amazon will be at the forefront of that change.