Finlay Thompson is a finalist in the business category of the 2022 Dominion Post Wellingtonian of the Year Award. The awards recognise individuals who are making significant contributions to the Wellington region.
“I’m delighted to have Dragonfly’s achievements acknowledged by our peers in the Wellington community. I’m particularly proud of the networks we’ve established across government, research, academic and business sectors.”
Under Finlay’s leadership, Dragonfly has grown from 19 to 30 staff and associates, and added several large international contracts to its New Zealand client base.
“Our sustained organic growth has enabled us to ‘export’ our capabilities and develop our Wellington-based business. The international projects are related to COVID-19 sequencing, forest management and marine surveys, which complement the local projects and keep work stimulating for staff.”
Finlay says increasing the diversity of skills in the company has been a deliberate strategy, with machine learning experts, cartographers, GIS experts, fisheries scientists, front-end developers and project managers now part of the team.
“I’m really excited by our unique mix of people, which enables Dragonfly to tackle a wide range of work and take data-based projects all the way from concept to delivery. The way we work can also be eye-opening to a client as we put reproducible methods in place that ensure data security and accuracy and save them time and money into the future.”
“We’re continually finding new sectors and spheres where data science can contribute to good decision-making and increase trust in the information that’s available for clients and the public.”
Finlay was Dragonfly Data Science’s first employee in 2008 and has been CEO since 2020. He has a PhD in mathematics and has worked in software development and data science.
The winners in 9 categories and an overall Wellingtonian of the Year will be announced at an event on Wednesday evening. Other finalists in the business category are Ralph Highnam, chief science and innovation officer of Volpara Health, Jeremy Ward managing director of East By West Ferries, and Jessie Wong founder and owner of Yu Mei.