Founding Partner & Managing Director

Ana is a data management leader with 20+ years of experience helping organisations build trusted, well-governed data foundations that support real business outcomes. As the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Data Ascend, she brings a practical, hands-on approach shaped by years of delivering complex data programmes across large enterprise, telecoms, and government. Experience highlights Sasol (5 years) – Data Services COE Lead, including the setup of a Data Management Services Centre of Excellence and delivery of an analytics ecosystem platform MTN (3 years) – Enterprise Data Architect within the Enterprise Architecture team, supporting major programmes such as Converged Billing, Customer Management, and billing initiatives Local Government (7+ years) – Data Architect on key municipal systems including: Land Information System (City of Johannesburg), ISIS (City of Cape Town), and ILIS (Nelson Mandela Bay Metro) Professional affiliations Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP) DAMA Southern Africa – Founding member; served as Education Director (2008–2010)