Sarah grew up in a family of engineers in New Zealand, and her curiosity about how things worked led her naturally to study Mechanical Engineering (Honours) at the University of Auckland.
During her degree, Sarah’s older sister was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship - a prestigious international scholarship - to study Aerospace Engineering at Caltech (the California Institute of Technology) in the United States. Watching her sister’s experience inspired Sarah to follow a similar path. She worked hard, earned her own Fulbright Scholarship, and was offered a fully funded place in Caltech’s Mechanical Engineering PhD programme.
“Careers span decades and naturally evolve over time - what matters most is continuing to do things you find enjoyable and meaningful.”
While working on her PhD, Sarah became increasingly interested in a growing field called data science, which combines maths, programming, data visualisation and problem-solving - all the things she enjoyed most. After completing her doctorate, she returned to New Zealand and joined an analytics company as a Data Scientist, building tools that help businesses understand their data.
Sarah then moved to a major New Zealand retail company, where she spent several years as a Senior Data Scientist working on projects related to marketing and pricing, before being promoted to lead a team. After years in this role, she decided it was time for a new challenge: she took a year off, and later founded her own business, Anadyne IQ, which helps organisations use artificial intelligence and automation to work more efficiently.