Sam Gilbert

Affiliated Researcher

Sam Gilbert is an entrepreneur and researcher working at the intersection of politics and technology.

An expert in data-driven marketing, Sam was Employee No.1 and Chief Marketing Officer at Bought By Many, the multi-award winning fintech ranked No. 13 in The Sunday Times TechTrack100.  Previously, he was Head of Strategy and Development at Experian, and Head of Consumer Finance at Santander. He holds an MPhil with distinction in International Relations and Politics from the University of Cambridge, and a BA with first class honours in Modern History and English from the University of Oxford.

Research Interests

  • The political legitimacy of big tech companies (particularly Facebook)
  • Social science research methods innovation using Google search data

Key Publications

“Good Data: An Optimist’s Guide to Our Digital Future” Welbeck Publishing Group, April 2021

“Data Ethics and Multinational Technology Companies”  (with Professor Peter Williamson), UK-China Global Issues Dialogue Centre, July 2020

“Could search engines predict the spread of coronavirus?”, BBC News, June 2020

“Infodemiology” in The Coronavirus Tech Handbook, April 2020

“Tapping into the hidden power of big search data”, SAGE Ocean, June 2019

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