OCBC has internally appointed a group data head to lead the Singaporean bank's efforts to become a leading data-driven organization in the region.
Donald MacDonald has been named to the newly created role of head of group data office, according to a statement, reporting to group chief operating officer Lim Khiang Tong.
MacDonald has close to 30 years of experience and first joined OCBC in 2004 as the lead of a customer analytics team in the consumer financial services division. He created and built a dedicated artificial intelligence unit in 2018 which would go on to become one of the largest data science teams in Singapore. MacDonald was most recently the acting head of group data office since June 2021.
Tech Expansion
Not unlike its peers, OCBC has been rapidly expanding its investments and capabilities in tech-related areas.
In March 2022, the bank announced its plans to hire 1,500 tech roles over the next three years across application development, cyber security, data science and artificial intelligence. Most of these roles will be based in Singapore, with the remaining in overseas entities in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia.
And in 2018, the bank sought to transform and upskill its workforce with a training and development program that has seen $50 million committed thus far. As of end-2021, more than 10,000 programs were developed with over 516,000 completions.
