Marilena Karanika

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT MARILENA KARANIKA

Marilena Karanika is an experienced data and analytics leader with dual hats in product ownership and team management. Marilena is currently the Head of Data Innovation at Experian, providing data and analytics support across different product domains such as affordability, credit risk and insurance. She is responsible for scaling client and consumer-facing machine learning products, leading a diverse cross-team function, and continuously identifying innovative projects across the organisation and turning them into live, revenue-generating products that clients love.With a background in mathematics and operational research and more than 15 years of experience in Credit Risk Modelling and Analytics in financial services, a key area of her expertise is enabling organisations to make better use of data, reach more informed decisions and support consumers throughout the customer life-cycle.Marilena is passionate about the power of financial education and loves translating complex technical points to non-technical audiences. She frequently collaborates with universities and professional bodies to deliver guest lectures and industry talks promoting a better and wider understanding of analytics in financial services, and the opportunities and challenges that machine learning and artificial intelligence bring to the credit industry. She has been recognized as Innovator of the Year 2021 in the Women in Credit Awards, voted as Top 20 in Experian in 2020 for her leadership skills, shortlisted as a finalist for Innovator of the Year 2024 in WiCA, and have been nominated for the UK Tech Professional Award in the Data category in 2024.