Trainline, the leading independent rail and coach platform, has appointed Facebook’s Mike Hyde as Chief Data Officer. Joining in early October, Mike will be responsible for Trainline’s data teams and leading a cutting-edge data-led innovation strategy. Hyde joins from Workplace by Facebook where he held the role of Data Science Director.
Data is an enabler for Trainline’s key customer-focussed teams in Product, Tech and Growth, as well as a critical resource to enable insight into travel behaviour across the UK and Europe. Recent data-driven features from Trainline include Crowd Alerts, which enables the Trainline community to inform each other if their carriage is busy or not and SplitSave, which enables Trainline to identify patterns in UK rail fares through machine learning to predict the best place to split tickets to help customers maximise savings on train fares.
With over 20 years’ experience in leading data teams and organisations, Hyde spent the last four years at Facebook, where he headed up the data science and engineering teams for Workplace. Prior to this, he was at Microsoft and led data and insights at Skype, delivering rich insights to every level of the organisation to create a data-focussed culture.
Jody Ford, Trainline CEO, comments: “We’re building the world’s number 1 rail platform and an important part of this is harnessing the power of data to make train travel easier and more seamless. Mike and his team will be essential in making sure our innovation strategy remains rooted in data-led insights that give customers an increasingly personalised and intuitive experience. This will empower people to make more sustainable travel choices, helping them pick train, over car and plane, time and time again.”
Milena Nikolic, Trainline CTO, comments: “Mike brings world-class experience in building data capabilities in high-tech, global-scale, product-driven businesses, with a visionary approach to how data and data culture can elevate the performance of the business.”
On joining Trainline, Hyde comments: “I couldn’t be more excited to join a home-grown tech company leading travel tech innovation across Europe and help it to thrive and grow as a data-driven organisation. Data is a powerful tool with vast potential to drive real impact on rail adoption, by modernising the experience, increasing accessibility and driving innovation throughout the experience.”
Photo credit: Trainline
