Skyscanner Hires Leader for New Data Science Unit

In Edinburgh, flight search engine and travel comparison specialist Skyscanner has appointed Adam Drake as its first Chief Data Officer, in charge of a newly created Data Science team.

Skyscanner, which has offices in the UK, Singapore, Beijing, Shenzhen, Miami and Barcelona, provides instant online comparisons for millions of flights across a thousand airlines, as well as car hire and hotels. The firm launched in 2003, and its web site now attracts more than 60 million visitors every month.

Drake (pictured) joins from ad network Zanox, in Berlin, where he served as Chief Data Scientist and Director of Engineering. Prior to this he was VP Research and Chief Data Scientist at mobile ad company Madvertise, focusing on real-time methods for measuring and identifying unique users, and devices to support products with audience clustering, user segmentation, behavioural targeting, retargeting, and user profiling.

In his new role, Drake will also spearhead the creation of new travel data products. He reports to founder and CEO Gareth Williams, who comments: 'Data products make travel more efficient. Adam joins us to set the standard for the future of travel data products, which is an area we see as crucial to our growth.'

Web site: www.skyscanner.net .