Industry practitioners, not lecturers

James Cotton

Co-Founder of iO-Sphere

James co-founded iO-Sphere with a mission to make data careers accessible to everyone. With experience at Expedia Group and WorldRemit, he brings real-world data leadership to every cohort.

Oscar Colin

Co-Founder

Oscar brings deep expertise in data engineering and curriculum design. Before co-founding iO-Sphere, he worked at Nurture and Into, building data platforms at scale. He designed the Prism training environment.

Tash Joslin

Data Coach

With over 20 years in data strategy, and experience co-founding Mojo, Tash brings sharp business thinking to her role at iO-Sphere. She helps learners turn numbers into clear stories that land with stakeholders.

Izzy Weber

Head Coach

Izzy leads the coaching team at iO-Sphere. With experience at DataCamp and PwC, she brings a deep understanding of what employers look for and how to get trainees job-ready.

Jen Godlonton

Head of Curriculum

Previously Black Swan Data, Jen now heads curriculum at iO-Sphere — designing how learners move from foundations to confidence across data and AI.

Jonas Torres

AI Engineer & Data Coach

Jonas is an AI engineer and data coach with more than 20 years across data and AI — a career that has run from hands-on individual contributor all the way to director level. He started at Accenture, where over 12 years he rose from data-quality analyst to leading Master Data Management globally, then built and led data-science practices, deploying 20+ machine-learning models that drove several million dollars in sales. From there he took senior data-leadership roles across high-growth tech: Head of Advanced Analytics & AI at La Caja (serving 2,000+ employees), Director of Data Analytics at Dialpad, Product Data Science Manager building the function at Tiendanube, and ML engineering management at Truv. More recently he has worked at the frontier of AI — training and red-teaming large language models to reason more reliably — and has spent years teaching: as a data academic lead, bootcamp mentor and masterclass instructor at TripleTen, Springboard, Coderhouse and Acámica, guiding hundreds of learners into data and AI careers. At iO-Sphere he engineers AI and coaches learners on the short courses and beyond.

Abdul Mafe

Data & AI Coach

Abdul spent years leading enterprise data governance at Three Network before joining iO-Sphere. Now a Data and AI coach, he helps learners build the quality, compliance, and judgement that real data teams run on.

Martin Stanley

Data Analytics Coach

Over two decades working across consulting, retail, and telco, Martin has led teams applying data analytics in the real world. Now at iO-Sphere, his focus is data analysis and visualisation, guiding learners from raw data to insights that move decisions.

Andrew Lane

Data & AI Coach

Before joining iO-Sphere, Andrew worked as a governance and transformation consultant for an insurance and finance organisation in the City of London. Trained as a lawyer, he works at the intersection of AI, change and ethics.

Lisa Symons

Accelerate Coach

Lisa is an Accelerate coach at iO-Sphere. With experience at Beyond, she provides tailored career support to help graduates land their first roles in data.

Abigail Samuelson

Accelerate Coach

A PCC (ICF) credentialed coach with a Postgraduate Diploma in Coaching, Abigail joined iO-Sphere from HyperionDev. She partners with learners from day one to turn new skills into real career progression.

Andrea Buwalda

Head Accelerate Coach

Andrea leads the Accelerate career support programme. With experience at EDX, she helps graduates prepare for the job market through CV workshops, interview prep, and employer introductions.