
Christopher Laing (Qrious)
Spark company Qrious has made two senior data science and artificial intelligence appointments to newly created roles.
Sam Daish joins Qrious as head of AI and data science while Christopher Laing has been appointed director of AI and data science.
The pair are tasked with helping to build Qrious’ enterprise AI portfolio and educating its customers about how AI technologies can create value for New Zealand organisations.
Daish comes to Qrious from Xero, where he was general manager of data innovation and brings over 15 years experience in the banking, finance, government and technology sectors.
He is tasked with driving growth within Qrious’ AI portfolio and building foundation systems.
“Qrious is one of the few companies in New Zealand that is in a position to build the products and tools that will ultimately help enable the New Zealand ‘AI economy’ and assist organisations to get value from this technology," Daish said.
Laing previously held the role of head of AI at Xero and before that was in charge of AI at German insurance giant Allianz.
He will lead the technical direction and implementation of Qrious’ AI and data science products and is also tasked with overseeing the end-to-end delivery of customer projects.
Qrious CEO Nathalie Morris said that the creation of these roles and the appointments reflect Qrious’ focus on growing its data and AI offering and on delivering depth and breadth of talent and capability to customers.