Clive Humby

Best known for setting up the renowned Tesco Clubcard and the first geodemographic research system, ACORN, Clive Humby is a skilled and talented expert in customer engagement and retention. As one half of the Dunnhumby leadership team, Clive has consulted a wide range of large businesses such as Marks & Spencer and Jaguar Land Rover to create highly-profitable and effective business strategies revolving around high-quality customer service and maximising customer loyalty. With a degree in mathematics from the University of Sheffield, Humby became the CEO of the marketing, technology and data specialist company, Caci. He joined as a senior technician before working his way up to Head of Retail Location and Development of ACORN and eventually becoming the Head of the Market Analysis Division for the UK and Europe.

Dunnhumby was formed after Clive decided to resign from Caci, the same day his wife and vice-president was dismissed, with the aim of setting up his own business. The two experts joined forces in the kitchen of their West London home and began working with the likes of Cable & Wireless and BMW. Dunnhumby now has 50 impressive offices in over 30 countries with influence over 350 million consumers. Most impressively, the consultancy established the Tesco Clubcard rewards scheme in 1994. With Tesco’s then-chairman Lord MacLaurin claiming it was scary how much Humby found out about his customers in only three months, the loyalty card now has over 17 million users in the UK and is a highly regarded system for many customers.

Humby is now also working as the Chief Data Scientist at the Data Consultancy, Starcount. He is known as one of the world’s pioneers in customer data science and was even awarded OBE for his services to Data and Business in 2019. As a leading voice in his sector, he has also co-authored the book Scoring Points: How Tesco Continues to Win Customer Loyalty and regularly speaks at leading MBA programmes. He also works as the head of research at the Oxford Institute of Retail Management and is a visiting professor at Northwestern University in Evanston. An inspiring figure within data analysis and business development, Clive Humby is an ideal speaker for corporations looking to enhance the way that they communicate with their customers. Able to expertly assess the needs wants and demographics of a company’s target audience, Humby can offer targeted strategic advice to businesses of any size and thereby boost their customer engagement and retention.