From Radio Journalist to VP of Business Development
Life of Sarah
While some of us just learn about history through books and TV shows, others live it. Born in Nigeria, Sarah and her mother fled the country during the Biafran war. Because men were not allowed to leave during the war, it would be more than a year before the family was reunited in the UK, where they still live today.
These days, Sarah finds enjoyable moments in walks with her husband and Sunday brunch with friends. Living in the UK has also enabled her to spend her weekends exploring new places across Europe.
Career Background – From Radio to AI
The thought of working in radio, TV, or film was exciting for Sarah, who obtained a BA with honours in English with Media Studies from the University of Southampton. Following university, she began her media career working at the BBC Radio Bristol as a radio journalist, sparking a flourishing opportunity. First reviewing TV programs and interviewing celebrities, she quickly advanced into an editor role followed by management and director roles. It was as a managing director of a media services business supporting the UK’s broadcaster Channel 4 that Sarah made the jump over to the legal industry. The shift was a surprisingly easy one as she already had experience using live verbatim captioning technology.
This new career path required talent in transcription, and it was that skill that led to Appen approaching Sarah with an offer to lead a UK secure transcription business the company acquired in 2016. She’s been immersed in the world of AI ever since. Only a few years into her new role, Sarah took over as the VP of Business Development, first for the UK and Europe and then all EMEA and APAC regions. She describes this foray into the world of AI as intriguing, ground-breaking, cutting edge, and compelling compared to the traditional and formal world of law.
When asked what type of leader she was, Sarah identified herself as the kind that is motivational and encouraging. After all, she’s her team’s biggest fan and her team reciprocates the sentiment. When asked the same question about Sarah, the team responded with overwhelmingly heart-warming feedback:
- Generous and inclusive
- Nurturing, compassionate, and driven
- Leading with example and compassionate thinking
- Great coach
- Supportive
Sarah believes in giving her team autonomy with some clear guidelines, goals, and targets to reach. She sees her greatest career accomplishment in developing a successful team with positive and rewarding client relationships. “Being part of the future and being involved in cutting edge innovations feels like a great career achievement”.
Sarah + Appen
With the new rules implemented by the EU NCAP regulations, Sarah is excited about the work her team is doing to support automotive safety feature initiatives. By providing human-centric data collection services to clients and helping them develop in-cabin sensors, her team is directly contributing to the development of driver alert safety systems and occupant monitoring systems.
Sarah is most proud of the passion and diversity of our team at Appen and how we value the importance of ethical data that truly represents all demographics and people types around the world. Without this, AI models can be trained on biased and flawed data and won’t function as intended. We want AI models to be fair for all and life enhancing.
AI Changes Perspective: A Brighter Future
Now that she’s been at Appen for several years, her thoughts on AI have shifted entirely. AI once seemed futuristic and robot-centric, but Sarah’s learned to appreciate that it’s in everyday items like smartphones and helps make day-to-day life easier. These days, she feels that anything is possible, it’s only a matter of time and technology development. One thing Sarah is looking forward to is the prospect that AI can help make the world safer for children and young adults online.
We’re excited to have you as our VP of Business Development, Sarah Lowe. We’re proud to share all that you’ve accomplished and know you’ll continue to make a positive impact in helping us make AI data better.