At COMET, we believe that better decisions start with better intelligence. That’s why we’re excited to announce the appointment of Dr Douglas Leith as our new Chief Intelligence Officer (CIO). This new role underscores our commitment to helping organisations turn data into actionable intelligence for smarter, safer, and more strategic operations.

 

‘Poor data can set off a chain reaction:
Poor data, poor information.
Poor information, poor intelligence.
Poor intelligence, poor decision-making.‘

- Dr Douglas Leith

 

Why intelligence matters more than ever

Digital technologies are no longer just about doing tasks quicker, or easier, or more integrated. We are now at a point with new and emerging digital technologies where we can generate valuable intelligence to aid better decision making.

This isn’t just about artificial intelligence.  AI does indeed have a significant role toplay in generating actionable intelligence, and is becoming an ever more ubiquitous component of systems and tools.

But good intelligence has to be driven by good information –so the tools we use for analysis, processing, and communication of information are equally important.  And fundamentally none of this is possible without good data. We need to have robust data gathering methods and behaviours to ensure high quality data.

Which is why COMET has created a dedicated role to ensure that its customers can have tools and services which aid gathering, analysing, and communicating intelligence, leading to optimal strategic and operational decision making.

Dr Douglas Leith is taking on this role within COMET as Chief Intelligence Officer. With oversight on ensuring that data, information, and intelligence is optimised within COMET products, to leading improvement activities within client organisations, this role promotes a strategic focus on actionable intelligence for better decision making for all.

For Douglas, this role is an interesting career moment as it brings him full circle from a PhD in applied Artificial Intelligence almost 40 years ago, to once again finding AI at the heart of his work.

“In many ways it’s no different to where we were 40 years ago, in that AI is best seen as a technology to support human decision making.  My work back then led to a commercial product to assist maintenance managers determine which machines to repair and when – it provided intelligence to allow them to make a more informed decision more timely.  And here we are again – we should see digital technologies as tools to see the unseen in our data so that we can all make the best decisions.”

What’s next: COMET’s continued focus on intelligence

Our focus on intelligence is already shaping future innovations. In 2025, we will launch an enhanced Signals module designed to help professionals extract actionable insights from their data and identify future risks more easily. Additionally, our new Data HealthCheck service is already helping clients refine their data collection methods and improve data quality.

With Dr Leith’s leadership, we’re confident that COMET will continue to set the standard for data-driven decision-making in high-risk industries.

To learn more about COMET HealthCheck and what it could do for your organisation get in touch, or click here to download our brochure.