Building Trust Through Data: An Interview with Anthony Nolan’s Data Director, Michael von Geldern and FOILs Simon Goldsmith
Anthony Nolan saves four lives every day through stem cell transplants, and data is a big part of their success. When it comes to data transformation, getting the foundations right matters. But what matters even more? Building trust with the people who'll use that data every day. Historical platform challenges had eroded stakeholder confidence, data lived across disconnected systems, reports people didn't trust piled up unused. Like many organisations, Anthony Nolan had a disconnect between what the organisation wanted to achieve and what they believed their data could deliver.
What FOIL did
We started by listening. Working alongside Michael von Geldern, Data & Insight Director, FOIL built a data strategy that reflected real pain points and opportunities. Starting carefully and focused on foundations: data architecture, data governance, and critically – building the right team with the right skills. FOIL designed a new data estate on Databricks, implemented Microsoft Purview for governance, and trained their people at every step.
The Impact
Trust is returning. Analysts now work with clean, validated reports they can stand behind. Stakeholders are leaning back into data because they understand it. Anthony Nolan is building toward AI-enabled insights – but they're doing it right: foundations first, capability second, innovation third. As Michael puts it, they're being deliberate about getting the building blocks in place before chasing what everyone else claims to be doing.
We sat down with Michael von Geldern, Data & Insights Director from Anthony Nolan and FOIL's Simon Goldsmith to explore how strategic thinking, the right skills, and genuine partnership are reshaping data capability at one of the UK's leading blood cancer charities.
Michael, can you start by telling us about Anthony Nolan and the work you do?
Michael Anthony Nolan was established just over 50 years ago by Shirley Nolan, an incredible woman whose son, Anthony, had blood cancer and needed a transplant. At the time, there was no register for people willing to donate stem cells, which made finding a match nearly impossible. So Shirley created the world's first bone marrow register.
Today, we're just short of a million people on the register and we provide four life-saving operations per day to people in the UK and around the world. The stem cell transplant service is international now – we work closely with registries globally, so if someone can't find a match in their home country, they can search internationally. And we do the same.
My role as Data & Insight Director focuses on business improvements and understanding how we can improve the mix of people on the register. We want to make sure that when people are asked to donate, they're ready and open to it. There's also a significant fundraising component – we support that team in identifying people likely to donate to the cause.
What made data strategy a priority for Anthony Nolan?
Michael About three years ago, Anthony Nolan created a new organisational strategy, and one of three key enablers was data. The organisation recognised it needed to give more weight to data and created my role as the first person in this position.
When I joined, it was clear we needed a data strategy to identify our current state, explore our options, and map out a pathway forward. What work streams did we need? How quickly could we move? Simon was instrumental in that process, helping us build the strategy and secure stakeholder buy-in. Understanding everyone's pain points and opportunities helped us formulate where we were and, critically, how we could move forward.
“There was quite a disconnect between business ambition and the perception of what data was available.”
Simon, how about you? What was your assessment when you first started working with the team at Anthony Nolan?
Simon It started with an introduction through a trustee at Anthony Nolan. Paul Airy, the CIO, was relatively new in role and wanted to refresh the data strategy. Timing worked well because Michael joined as we were kicking things off.
We spoke to the existing tech team managing the data platform and met with senior stakeholders to understand how they were using data and where the organisation was heading. There was quite a disconnect between business ambition and the perception of what data was available and how it could be used. Part of that came from historical challenges around platform migrations and tech refresh projects.
There was a real opportunity to increase confidence and re-engage people with how data could drive business improvement. And Anthony Nolan, like most organisations, is more complex than it appears from the outside. A "supporter" could be someone on the stem cell register, a fundraiser running the London Marathon, a regular donor, or a volunteer. All these people connect with the charity in different ways, and understanding how to harness that support when data lives in different systems adds real complexity.
The strategy helped us meet stakeholders, lift the platform, and put building blocks in place to grow confidence in the data and enable the organisation to take more meaningful action.
Anthony Nolan knew they needed to start with foundations to put building blocks in place
Michael, how did the strategy translate into actual work?
Michael Six work streams came out of the data strategy, initially focusing on foundational elements like data architecture and data governance. Rather than trying to boil the ocean, we focused on two data domains: the register and fundraising.
We've made good progress across all fronts. On data architecture, FOIL helped point us toward more current models. We've designed and built those, and we're now validating them. We're very close to signing off a new data estate using Databricks, which is exciting.
On data governance, we've brought in our first data governance analyst, assigned data ownership, and started treating data as an asset. We've rolled out glossaries, identified critical data elements, and selected a governance tool. FOIL supported us with a proof of concept on Microsoft Purview, and we're currently rolling that out.
But probably the biggest step was right at the start – reframing the team so we had the right skills to move forward. That's helped us maintain focus and build the capability we needed to improve data maturity through foundations first, then grow from there.
“Your team has been excellent at training our people, explaining new systems, tools, and processes – but critically, not keeping that knowledge to yourselves. It’s very much a teaching and learning opportunity as much as it is about setting things up for us.”
That focus on building internal capability is core to how FOIL works. Michael, how has the partnership felt from your perspective?
Michael The engagement has been super supportive, very flexible and nimble. If there's a delay on our side, the team is happy to pause while we sort ourselves out. That flexibility around support has been really helpful.
Your team has been excellent at training our people, explaining new systems, tools, and processes – but critically, not keeping that knowledge to yourselves. It's very much a teaching and learning opportunity as much as it is about setting things up for us.
The breadth of work you've supported us with across the data world has been valuable too, from data strategy to Microsoft Purview for governance to data architecture. You have skills across the suite of data elements, which means you're getting to know our business well and can hit the ground running when we need support. As a small charity, we won't have that breadth of skills to hand, so being able to tap into that has been really helpful.
What impact has this work had so far?
Michael In terms of the work completed to date, the impact is on the cusp of happening. With data architecture, we're about to switch live – analysts are getting their reports migrated from the old architecture to the new one. With data governance, my success point will be when data quality metrics start improving. We've started data quality scans, so we'll have a benchmark and know where issues are. We can then go back to stakeholders and prioritise what to fix first.
Data things don't happen overnight, so yes, it's quite a long timeframe. But probably the biggest win to date is rebuilding trust with stakeholders. That goes back to the team changes we drove about a year ago. We've got people on board now who've been able to make small changes and bring confidence back into the organisation around the data we use.
We've cleaned through all the old Power BI reports, made sure the data is accurate, had everything quality assured by two people, and got rid of old reports that didn't work. Previously, there was this big clump of reports people didn't trust or use. Now we've fine-tuned it down to reports people can trust and will use. Getting the right people on board with the right skills has really engendered trust back into the organisation around data.
Simon, trust seems like an underestimated factor in data transformation.
Simon It really is. It's easy to assume senior stakeholders understand what data are there and how to use it, and that they should just have confidence in it. That's normally far from the truth.
Investing time to help people gain confidence in data, especially when it's been eroded in the past, is crucial. I remember one specific example at Anthony Nolan where the platform was pulling in a daily snapshot of register numbers but wasn't holding history. A director would look at it and notice the number had moved between this week and last week, but couldn't understand why. The history had been thrown away or overwritten, so it was very hard to explain. They'd just go back to the spreadsheet they'd been using for five years because they trusted that.
Helping them understand there's normally a reason why data moves, and putting in that history so you can show what's changed, starts to build confidence. Sometimes their spreadsheet was ignoring something, and once you can show that delta, trust begins to rebuild.
Michael, what role did listening play in building that trust?
Michael There's an element of listening that's potentially undervalued. That was one of the early things FOIL, myself, and Alice – who helped with the data strategy – focused on. We listened to the organisation about challenges, pain points, and opportunities, then played that back to people. As soon as you start listening and reflecting what you've heard, you start engendering trust.
Simon, anything to add on the communication side?
Simon Sometimes business stakeholders don't lean in and try to understand data because they're baffled by terms, terminology, too much data, or complex reporting and technology. Those early conversations were about helping them understand where data sits, how it flows, and why there might have been challenges. Just simplifying things down and making it accessible made a real difference.
What's next for Anthony Nolan?
Michael The vision is both broadening the foundational work across other data domains – we've already identified patient services, volunteers, and our operational element, Donor Transplantation Services – and growing our capability. We're currently sending one of our analysts on a Masters in Data Science to build skills internally. I have a budget bid in for a data engineer and data scientist starting next year. By that point, we'll have good foundational data for them to actually use. It would have been too early to bring in those skill sets before now.
One of the many benefits of moving to this new data architecture is that we'll be able to put generative AI tools over the top of it. The current architecture wouldn't really allow for decent generative AI work, but with Databricks and the new architecture, we'll enable natural language processing by stakeholders once the data is in good enough shape. We're not quite ready yet because the data needs to be better quality and we need more volume to warrant an LLM, but hopefully within a short time period that will be available.
It sounds like you're doing this the right way – foundations first, then AI.
Michael That's not to say there isn't pressure to do stuff because everyone else is doing it. But in reality? No one else is really doing it, and if they are, they're not doing it very well. We're being deliberate about getting the foundations right first.
Building data capability that lasts means getting the foundations right, building the right team, and earning trust every step of the way. If you're looking to transform how your organisation uses data, get in touch to find out how we can help.