Nipa Basu, Ph.D., is the Global and North American Practice Director for Digital Intelligence at GHD Digital. GHD is a global environmental, design, and construction engineering firm with a 94-year history and 10,000 employees, founded in Australia and headquartered in Irvine, California. Dr. Basu has a strong background in data science and statistics, with previous experience as the Chief Analytics Officer at Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) where she spent over 19 years.
GHD has historically focused on geographic information systems (GIS) and data management (DM) but expanded over five years ago to include a data science and artificial intelligence (AI) group led by Dr. Basu. In her role, she oversees a team of 100 professionals in various data-related areas. During the interview, Dr. Basu highlighted the differences between D&B and GHD, noting the engineering services focus of GHD requires a different approach.
While engineering firms like GHD are still catching up on their digitization journey, they have a unique advantage in understanding the environmental and sustainability needs of their clients. GHD is at the forefront of corporate sustainability efforts, providing valuable insights into environmental, social, and governance (ESG) improvements. Dr. Basu emphasized the importance of data collection, quality, sharing, and real-time analytics to drive industry benchmarking and progress.
Dr. Basu’s experiences shared during this interview are not only insightful but also encouraging for the future of digital intelligence and data science in engineering firms like GHD. With a focus on harnessing the power of data