From as far back as I can remember I have always loved maths. There is something beautiful and satisfying about it, and you can’t beat that feeling you get when you solve a really difficult problem. It was a no-brainer for me to continue my studies onto University, and I completed my MMath at Durham University in 2008. I really enjoyed this course; the subject matter was very broad and exposed us to a wide range of specialties, and it was here I realised my passion lay in statistics. After graduating, I stayed on in the North East and spent two years working as a statistician under the guidance of my supervisors at Durham. We were working on building predictive forecasting models for out-of-hours GP call volumes. Sounds exciting? Not on paper, of course, but this time really allowed me to grow, both in my understanding of statistics and programming (I got to spend most of my time solving problems and building models in R), but more importantly enabled me to learn the skills to communicate how important mathematics and statistics was to non-maths-specialists (we were pitching to doctors and health care commissioners!). The impact of the work we managed to complete in this two year period can be found here: http://impact.ref.ac.uk/CaseStudies/CaseStudy.aspx?Id=27167 Fast forward to 2010, and I was now hooked on statistics and knew I wanted to delve deeper into the field. I started a PhD at Durham in partnership with Shell, and just before beginning this I submitted a thesis on my previous work. Here’s where it gets more interesting: A year into my PhD, my Masters thesis was accepted and I was successfully awarded an MSc. in Statistics from Durham University. Although I was really enjoying the work I was doing with Shell, I missed the buzz and interaction with a range of different people that comes with working full time (and to be honest, wondered if I had another ‘thesis write-up’ in me!), and started to look into what careers would be open to me now I had a post-graduate degree under my belt. In 2011 I relocated to Exeter and joined the research team at ATASS Sports. It was clear from the get go this was the right decision, after about a month of joining the company I was working on live models and making an immediate impact to the company. Over the years I have worked on a variety of different sports, but day to day in the research team remains the same: working with like-minded people, solving difficult problems, using R. My role has developed over time, of course, and I progressed from managing individual sports to becoming a Director in 2014. I still have a hand in research and development of predictive models for sport, but now I also manage the expanding team and oversee our company’s external presence. All in all I feel terribly lucky to have ended up where I am today. I wasn’t aware a statistician was a viable career choice until I had finished my undergraduate degree (I was mulling over an actuarial or teaching career for a long time until that point!), and I’m so grateful for my first exposure to this world with my supervisors at Durham. Any publicity for careers in this industry is such a valuable thing, and I hope this inspires others to pursue a career in mathematics.