By the Numbers - JN Group’s data point woman Gillian Jackson breaks down her life’s chapters

Patriotic pride has kept Gillian Jackson firmly rooted on home soil.

After years of working in many roles at the JN Group in Kingston and currently serving as senior manager for data analytics at JN Bank, Jackson remains as driven as ever. “I’ve been fortunate to have a variety of opportunities throughout my career, and I’ve always focused on where I could make the greatest impact while continuing to grow professionally,” says Jackson. “There is no place like Jamaica to me. I know it can be frustrating for some if you don’t have the right opportunities, but success is where preparation and opportunity meet.”

Officially on JN’s payroll since graduating from The University of the West Indies, Mona, with a bachelor’s degree in actuarial science, Jackson has risen steadily through the ranks.

First, she transitioned from the role of benefits assistant in the human resources department to overseeing performance management.

“That was my second job,” she recalls in a mid-morning interview over sips of coffee.

Her sunny disposition, all easy smiles, is a contrast to the bleak, overcast day outside.

“I was responsible for collating all the performance reviews of over 1,500 employees and assessing performance incentives for staff,” says the Immaculate Conception High alumna. “I was fresh out of university. I did a lot of crunching numbers at that time; that’s what I was good at. I remember doing a lot of presentations at a young age to the general manager. I was really good at manipulating spreadsheets,” Jackson notes of her then-performance analyst position.

Wondering what came next made her consider upskilling.

Jackson applied for, and was awarded, a Fulbright scholarship from the United States Embassy.

“It was fully funded,” she says of the master’s degree in actuarial science pursued at the University of Nebraska.

“My experience living there was very different. It was the middle of America, and I was in a Republican state, so that was very interesting. My roommate, believe it or not, was actually a colleague at JN at the time, Phillipa Mould, who was also a Fulbright recipient.”

The pair had decided to do their advanced degrees at the same time.

“We managed to survive because we had each other for the most part. My time there taught me a lot about global perspectives and gave me a lot of exposure,” adds Jackson, who, during her 24-month study period, worked for a Nebraska insurance company.

The time abroad left its mark.

“The Fulbright programme has people from all over the world, so one of my best friends ended up coming from the Dominican Republic, and I discovered countries I’d never heard of before, like Burkina Faso. I got to learn a lot about people and how they do things; that was one of the biggest takeaways for me.”

The middle of five children born to accountant father Maurice Jackson and saleswoman mother Althea Haynes, Gillian returned home to JN.

She started a new job as a senior business adviser in the Business Advisory Unit, which was then headed by former JN exec and current Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Dr Dana Morris Dixon.

She credits her former boss and welcomed her move into government.

“I thought it was a very good appointment because she’s very good at getting things done, which is what you need to do in government. Dana was an excellent mentor and taught me a lot about research and how to put together information in a way that’s digestible,” Jackson says.

A subsequent promotion brought Jackson to her present position. It came about with JN’s undertaking of a project to modernise the company’s loan portfolio.

“We started to digitise our loan products, unsecured loans first. Credit cards came next, and for that we had to build a lot of data models to support automated decision-making,” she says.

Jackson was the point person chosen to lead all back calculations and analytics to create the necessary models for the project. Two years in, the role was made permanent.

She expanded her team, which included a data scientist hire, and now oversees a departmental staff of seven.

“We are responsible for designing the automated financial and credit models used across the group. We make sure they are working properly and that decisions are made based on reliable assessments of what is predictive,” she explains.

What has sustained her long stay with the JN Group, she says, is that she genuinely enjoys the work.

“I love being able to just get raw data, look into it, and tell a story with it. I teach that to my team and across the company. I love unearthing a little nugget from a big ocean of information. It’s something I take great pride in. I love solving problems,” she underscores.

As committed to the job as she is to fitness, Gillian is serious about gym time. “That’s my de-stressor right there,” she volunteers, pointing out, too, that she’s an avid runner.

“I run 5K races. I think I have done about four in the last month; I just did one last weekend. I also go running in the mornings.”

She also unwinds at the card table. “I love kalooki and play with my friends two to three times a week after work.”

Besides her nine-to-five at JN, Jackson and co-founder Clava Mantock operate Intelex Systems, the company behind Mantock’s Guide, an online learning programme that prepares children in grades four to six for the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination.

From credit models to grade-six exam prep, the work is the same: give Gillian Jackson the numbers, and she will find the story.

lifestyle@gleanerjm.com

Jackson’s musings on…

THE NUMBERS GENE

Mother to sons Jordan and Justin, Jackson thinks her eldest has inherited her love for numbers.

“He’s the maths person on the Junior Schools’ Challenge Quiz team at his school, St Andrew Prep. He and his brother have a passion for numbers and problem-solving. They are both at the top of their classes,” she proudly declares.

POINTERS FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN DATA ANALYTICS PURSUITS…

Jackson recommends “learning the latest skills as intensely as you can to show what you can achieve”. She suggests financial blogging, posting on LinkedIn to stimulate feedback from followers, and tapping into GitHub, “where you can publish analytical works you’ve done”. The three platforms can put your work in front of recruiters.

WHY WOMEN THRIVE IN THE FINANCE LANDSCAPE…

“I think women are generally more organised and can manage multiple things at the same time. We are amazing multitaskers. Some men have that capacity for sure, but with women, perhaps it’s the maternal element for some that pushes them to deliver their best performance.”

WHAT THE FUTURE OF DATA LOOKS LIKE…

“AI (artificial intelligence) is already part of how we work at JN. We use it every day in our programming and coding, where it helps us write better code faster, and in our research, where we pair it with rigorous validation so every answer we act on is sound. The difference with JN is that we are building the guardrails as we adopt the tools. We are developing the organisation’s AI governance framework now, before the industry catches up, and I sit on the task force driving that work.”