An Update On Our Progress

Update effective October 16, 2019: DataCamp commissioned an independent, third-party review of the events of October 2017, led by Anurima Bhargava, a former Department of Justice official in the Obama administration, and Pamela Coukos from Working IDEAL. Their report also examines the company’s response in the months that followed, and the overall climate and culture at the company. You can read the report in its entirety here. Key findings from the report are also summarized on the DataCamp blog here.

Hi everyone,

I would like to provide you with several updates, including our progress on the initiatives we announced earlier in this Board update.

I want to personally let you know that I have, on a temporary basis, stepped in to serve as Interim CEO for DataCamp. Next steps on this role will be decided once the third-party review is fully concluded.

I am a founder and a current Board member of the company. Most recently, I led our product and content teams. In my mandate as Interim CEO, I am focused on serving all of our most important stakeholders: our learners, customers, employees, instructors, and the broader data science community. Improving communication and transparency is core to this mandate, so I would like to share several important updates.

First, I am pleased to announce that Sue Lai (VP of Product) and Mari Nazary (VP of Content) have joined the DataCamp leadership team in the past month. Furthermore, Madeeha Rana will also be joining our leadership team as General Counsel at the start of June to establish our in-house legal department.

Second, we have been actively searching for and interviewing candidates for a new and independent member of the DataCamp Board of Directors. This process is underway and we will provide an update on that appointment as soon as we have more information to share.

Third, we have been hard at work in the first phase of establishing the Instructor Advisory Board (IAB). We have spent the past weeks gaining input from instructors on the draft plan, responsibilities, and selection process for the IAB. This feedback has been extremely useful and we want to thank these instructors for their expertise, insights, and time. We expect to finish our planning this week and should be in a position to share the IAB framework with all our instructors, and open the application process shortly thereafter. The goal is then to have the IAB in place by mid-summer. We also plan to share a more complete overview of the IAB, including more details on its responsibilities and composition, with the broader community in the coming weeks. We believe the IAB will play a critical role in DataCamp’s success for years to come and are eager to inaugurate its first term.

Lastly, the third-party review by Anurima Bhargava is now fully in motion. She and her team are conducting outreach and holding conversations with company employees and key stakeholders in our community. In my role as interim CEO I am focused on ensuring that Anurima Bhargarva and her team have the resources and access they need. As this review process is meant to be thorough and independent, we do not expect to provide regular updates on her team’s progress but will keep you apprised as appropriate.

To close, I'm excited to continue DataCamp’s mission to improve data fluency around the world and to create a data science learning platform and community that is strong, healthy, and inclusive to all.

Sincerely,
Martijn Theuwissen
Interim CEO