James Spooner

Dr James Spooner is Head of Data Science at Stonegate Group, the UK’s largest pub company, where he leads data science strategy across experimentation, causal inference, pricing, loyalty, and commercial decision-making. His work focuses on helping large operational businesses move beyond descriptive analytics towards robust measurement of cause, effect, and incremental value. At Stonegate, James led the design and rollout of a company-wide Test and Learn framework across more than 1,000 sites. Using causal Bayesian synthetic-control and difference-in-differences methods, the framework evaluates pricing, product, marketing, and loyalty interventions, reducing wrong-decision rates from 27% to 11% and creating a consistent standard for commercial trials. James also leads a team delivering machine learning products across propensity modelling, pricing optimisation, and customer decisioning. Previously, he worked as a Senior Data Scientist at a major UK police force and founded two external