Interview with Deniz Nemli Gonen - 10 Key Questions to AI & Data Science Practitioners

The Royal Statistical Society is thrilled to kick off our new interview series with Deniz, VP of Data and AI @Colendi!

In this interview series the RSS Data Science and AI Committee interview data science and AI practitioners across the field to ask them the same 10 questions regarding their:

➡️ Career Journey
💡 Advice for aspiring and current AI and Data Science Practitioners
📊 Future Trends in Data Science


Bio
Deniz Nemli Gonen is a seasoned AI and data leader with extensive experience in banking, fintech, and e-commerce across international markets. She currently serves as the Executive Vice President of AI & Data at Colendi, one of Türkiye’s leading fintech scale-ups, where she leads AI-driven initiatives, including LLM applications and microcredit risk modelling, shaping the company’s data strategy to expand financial inclusion.

With a strong background in banking and financial analytics, Deniz has held key roles at major financial institutions. At Barclays UK, she worked as an AVP in Decision Analytics, developing pricing models, customer segmentation strategies, and NBA (Next Best Action) engines for loans and mortgages. She also contributed to market and customer insights, leveraging transaction data to guide corporate strategy and retail banking decisions.

In Türkiye, Deniz played a crucial role in retail analytics and credit risk modelling at Akbank and ING Türkiye, where she developed customer segmentation models, credit scoring systems, and automation solutions that significantly enhanced decision-making processes.

Before transitioning into fintech and e-commerce, Deniz was a Data Science Manager at Getir, Türkiye’s decacorn superapp, where she led multiple data teams, building personalization, recommendation engines, and customer behaviour models across multiple countries.

Deniz holds an M.A. in Economics from Pennsylvania State University and Boğaziçi University, along with a B.Sc. in Mathematics. She has published research in NLP, time series clustering, and machine learning applications, with a focus on AI strategy and data-driven decision-making in financial services.