Commercial Senior Analyst Meera Panchal talks about dropping out of med school to build a tech start-up, aspiring to be a future leader and her grandparents being role models.

We all know breakfast is the most important meal of the working day: so what was on the menu this morning?

Weetabix & almond milk.

Sum up what you do at News UK in the shortest sentence possible.

I’m a Commercial Senior Analyst, I help commercial stakeholders make strategic decisions based on data to support revenue and growth across NGN and TNL

Lay a bit of context on that?

Part of my job is building tools such as dashboards for reporting, investigating areas of opportunities, creating new inventive ways to tell a story using data visualisations. Also, understanding human behaviour by capturing different actions to help answer, what do people like, why are they doing a particular action and what is working and what isn’t.

What attracted you to the role in the first place?

I enjoy looking for meaningful patterns from otherwise useless data and turning that into information that can be used to make decisions. I also enjoy storytelling, using data is often an impactful way to convey a message and persuade people to take certain actions.

As an aspiring future leader, I think learning how to use data to influence business decisions will be a key skill to being successful.

What’s the most interesting/challenging part of your job?

The most interesting part would be seeing the tools built being used and how they impacted the business. Most challenging would be when a piece of code isn’t working and you don’t know why, it’s like solving a puzzle with no cheat sheet.

Last book, film, binge watch and sounds you consumed?

Who is your role model? And why?

My grandparents. They’ve taught me great resilience and to never take anything for granted. They immigrated to a country to create a better life for future generations aka me, having survived wars, poverty and racism.

What is your most treasured possession?

Old home videos which my parents filmed on a camcorder.

Last holiday destination? And why?

Greece. I love the historical spots, the beaches, amazing food and it’s beautiful!

You’ve won ten million on the Lottery – what do you do?

I would probably invest it into starting a business and maybe acquiring one that is working on solving a hard problem of the world. Also, I’d love to take a trip around the world.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Find something you never want to quit and surround yourself with highly effective people.

What one bit of advice would you give someone wanting to do your job

Coding is important but learning how to build relationships with people is even more so – and creative problem-solving.

Tell us something not many people know about you…?

I dropped out of med school and founded a tech start-up which I grew from 1-8 people.

Who would be your three Fantasy Dinner Party guests? And why?

Can I have four? Toni Morrison, Steve Jobs, Tyson Fury and Riz Ahmed. I think they’d all be interesting conversationalists and I would love to pick their brains about different topics.