Marianna Pekar is the Chief Data Scientist at MartinJenkins, a consulting firm specialising in giving expert advice mainly to government and public sector agencies in New Zealand. During her career she worked in both research-focussed and business development roles. As a Principal Data Scientist at a government research organisation called the Social Wellbeing Agency; there she focused on social issues facing New Zealanders, applying an innovative, data-driven approach using linked microdata of individuals and households. Before that she worked at KPMG and was responsible for business development at the inception of KPMG Lighthouse, Center of Excellence for data-driven technology. In her current role at MartinJenkins, Marianna is once again responsible for building a data science team, developing service lines and products for clients and leading a data-driven transformation of the organization.